Karl Bernhard Zoeppritz
Karl Bernhard Zoeppritz | |
---|---|
University of Munich | |
Known for | Zoeppritz equations |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Geophysics |
Institutions | University of Göttingen |
Karl Bernhard Zoeppritz (22 October 1881 – 20 July 1908) was a German
These equations relate the amplitudes of
Early life
Zoeppritz was born on 22 October 1881 in Mergelstetten, a small village several miles south of
Work in geophysics
Zoeppritz became interested in the application of physics in geology, but the field of geophysics was still in its infancy. The only place in Germany where Zoeppritz could specifically study geophysics was at the University of Göttingen, as an assistant in the influential Emil Wiechert's research group.
Using Wiechert's theoretical work and data from earthquakes including the
Zoeppritz used Wiechert's work and went on to derive a full set of transmission and reflection coefficients for a plane wave approaching a discontinuity. Zoeppritz was not the first to mathematically describe this phenomenon as the British seismologist Cargill Gilston Knott used a different approach to derive Knott's equations in 1899,[6] but this was still unknown in Germany by the 1920s. The equations that Zoeppritz described are now named after him (Zoeppritz equations) and are used extensively in reflection seismology (particularly amplitude versus offset), for a number of applications including hydrocarbon exploration.
Death and legacy
In the summer of 1908, at the age of 26, Zoeppritz died after succumbing to an infectious illness of several months.[7] He accomplished all of his work at Göttingen in just two years, but much of it was left unpublished at the time of his death. Much of the unpublished work was revised and published by Wiechert, Gutenberg and Geiger, with his most important work that described the reflection and transmission of seismic waves in elastic media – the Zoeppritz equations – not being published until 1919.[8]
In 2002, the German Geophysical Society (DGG) began awarding the Zoeppritz Prize to outstanding young geophysicists.[9]
References
- ^ Zoeppritz, Karl (1906). Geologische Untersuchungen im Oberengadin zwischen Albulapass und Livigno (Geological investigations in the Oberengadin between Albulapass and Livigno). Inaugural-Dissertation (PhD thesis), Albert-Ludwigs-Universität, Freiburg, 68 pp.
- ^ Zoeppritz, Karl (1907). Über Erdbebenwellen II. Laufzeitkurven. Nachrichten von der Königlichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, Mathematisch-physikalische Klasse, 529-549.
- ^ Zoeppritz, Karl, Ludwig Geiger & Beno Gutenberg (1912). Über Erdbebenwellen V. Konstitution des Erdinnern, erschlossen aus dem Bodenverrückungsverhältnis der einmal reflektierten zu den direkten longitudinalen Erdbebenwellen, und einige andere Beobachtungen über Erdbebenwellen. Nachrichten Königlichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, Mathematisch-physikalische Klasse, 121-206.
- ^ Ritter, J.; Schweitzer, J. "10 Karl Zoeppritz (1881 – 1908), German National Report" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 March 2012. Retrieved 13 March 2012.
- ISBN 0-521-38571-7.
- ^ Sheriff, R. E., Geldart, L. P., (1995), 2nd Edition. Exploration Seismology. Cambridge University Press.
- ^ Kertz, W (2002). Biographisches Lexikon zur Geschichte der Geophysik. Edited by K-H Glaflmeier & R Kertz. Braunschweigische Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft, Braunschweig 2002, 384 pp.
- ^ Zoeppritz, Karl (1919). Erdbebenwellen VII. VIIb. Über Reflexion und Durchgang seismischer Wellen durch Unstetigkeitsflächen. Nachrichten von der Königlichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, Mathematisch-physikalische Klasse, 66-84.
- ^ The Karl Zoeppritz Prize, including a short biography in German Archived 2011-08-07 at the Wayback Machine