Bruce Bolt

Bruce Alan Bolt (* February 15, 1930 in Largs, New South Wales, † July 21, 2005 in Oakland, California ) was an American seismologist and is considered one of the pioneers of Erdbebeningineurwesens. Bolt was a professor of seismology at the University of California at Berkeley (UC Berkeley ) and from 1963 to 1991 director of the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory ( BSL), he retired in 1993. Besides seismological literature and standard works, Bolt also wrote two popular books. Born in Australia was during his time in California a U.S. citizen.

Career

Bolt was educated at the University of Sydney, he, in 1952, there his bachelor's and 1955 his master's degree in applied mathematics and a doctorate in 1959. Between 1954 and 1962, having achieved it in Sydney in applied mathematics, he developed during this time his interest in mathematical modeling of the Earth.

As part of the Fulbright program, he completed a post - graduate student at the Lamont Geological Observatory a scholarship (now the Lamont- Doherty Earth Observatory ) in New York. During this time he visited the Department of Geodesy and Geophisic the University of Cambridge in England, where she learned Perry Byerly and John Verhogen know, both professors at UC Berkeley. They were very impressed with him and invited him to come to the UC Berkeley. He accepted this invitation and in 1963 Byerly 's successor as director of the Berkeley Seismological Station (now Berkeley Seismological Laboratory, BSL).

Activity in Berkeley

For 28 years, until 1991, was director of the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory Bolt. During this time he visited many of the major earthquake zones of the earth and gave lectures on earthquakes and earthquake disasters. He participated in numerous committees, including the Califormia Seismic Saftey Commission, of which he was 15 years old and whose chairman he was for one year. Bolt was considered one of the most influential people in California, which were concerned measures to improve earthquake safety. In addition to his university duties Bolt was also in all major construction projects in California, where earthquake safety was significant advisory role, for example in the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. Many international projects he supervised, such as the Trans-Alaska pipeline or the Aswan Dam.

Bolt also hired investigations on the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. He found that the epicenter of this earthquake as previously assumed was not in Olema in Marin County - where the damage is greatest were - but further south in Daly City in San Mateo County - where the San Andreas Fault just yet located off the coast, before they returned to the north of the Golden Gate the country. In the California Academy of Sciences museum in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, he was involved in the design of the simulator to illustrate the 1906er - earthquake. On the 100th anniversary of the earthquake of 1906, he should speak in April 2006, but no longer what it was, since he died after a short battle with cancer in July 2005.