23 January: Remembering Andrija Mohorovičić on Birthday

OV Digital Desk
3 Min Read
Andrija Mohorovičić

Image Courtesy: Google Doodle

Andrija Mohorovičić (23 January 1857 – 18 December 1936) was a Croatian meteorologist and seismologist who is best known for his discovery of the Mohorovičić discontinuity, also known as the Moho. The Moho is a boundary that separates the Earth’s crust from the mantle, and it was first identified by Mohorovičić in 1909.

Life and Career

Mohorovičić was born in VoloskoOpatija on 23 January 1857. and graduated from the Polytechnic Institute in Zagreb in 1879. He worked as a meteorologist and seismologist in Croatia, and later in Vienna, Austria. He made many contributions to the field of seismology, including the discovery of the Moho and the development of methods for determining the depths of earthquakes. He passed away in 1936.

22 April: World Earth Day

His discovery of the Moho was a significant contribution to the field of Earth science, and it provided important information about the structure of the Earth’s interior. The Moho is now considered a fundamental boundary in the Earth’s structure, and it is studied by geologists, seismologists, and geophysicists around the world.

He discovered it while studying seismic waves generated by earthquakes. He observed that seismic waves change velocity at a certain depth, indicating a boundary between the Earth’s crust and the mantle. This boundary is now known as the Mohorovičić discontinuity or the Moho for short.

He died on 18 December 1936 in Zagreb, Sava Banovina, Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

Award and Legacy

His legacy lives on through the Moho boundary, which is widely recognized as an important discovery in the field of Earth science.

Mohorovičić is considered one of the most important Croatian scientists of his time and his discovery of the Moho is considered as one of the most important contributions to the field of seismology. His work helped to establish seismology as a scientific discipline in Croatia and also made important contributions to the understanding of the Earth’s interior.

His legacy is also remembered through the Andrija Mohorovičić Institute of Geophysics which is a scientific institution in Croatia that conducts research in the field of geophysics and meteorology.

Finally, The Mohorovičić Award is a scientific award given by the Andrija Mohorovičić Institute of Geophysics to Croatian scientists who have made significant contributions to the field of geophysics, meteorology, and related disciplines.

On 23 January 2013, Google Doodle celebrated Andrija Mohorovičić’s 156th Birthday.

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