The Woman Who Discovered Earth’s Inner Core
Inge Lehmann was not your ordinary woman. She was a seismologist and mathematician who made a groundbreaking discovery that changed our understanding of the Earth. She was also one of the longest lived scientists in history, living to 104 years of age and writing her last scientific paper at 99.
Lehmann was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1888. She studied mathematics at the University of Copenhagen and Cambridge University, where she was one of the few women in her field. She became interested in seismology, the study of earthquakes and the Earth’s interior, after working at a geodetic institute in Denmark.
In 1936, she published a paper titled “P’ “ in which she proposed that the Earth has a solid inner core inside a liquid outer core. She based her theory on the analysis of seismic waves, which are vibrations that travel through the Earth after earthquakes. She noticed that some waves, called P’ waves, were reflected by a boundary within the core, which could not be explained by a uniform core.
Her theory was met with skepticism at first, but it was later confirmed by more sensitive seismographs and by other scientists such as Beno Gutenberg and Harold Jeffreys. Lehmann also made contributions to other fields of geophysics such as mantle structure, plate tectonics, and gravity anomalies. She was recognized as one of the leading seismologists of her time and received many honors and awards, including the William Bowie Medal from the American Geophysical Union in 1971 and the Gold Medal from the Danish Royal Society in 1965.
Lehmann was also a pioneer among women and scientists, who faced many challenges and prejudices in her career. She was the first woman to be elected to the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters in 1937 and the first woman to head a department at the Geodetic Institute in 1940.
She was also very modest about her achievements. She never sought fame or recognition. She just wanted to do good science. As Jørgen Steen Nielsen, a Danish science journalist who interviewed Lehmann several times, said: “She was very modest about her achievements. She never sought fame or recognition. She just wanted to do good science.”
She had a very sharp mind until the end. She was always interested in new developments in science and technology. She even learned how to use a computer when she was over 90 years old, according to her nephew Nils Groes, who inherited her papers and books. She wrote her last scientific paper at 99, in which she revised some of her earlier calculations on the Earth’s core.
She died in 1993 at the age of 104, leaving behind a legacy of scientific excellence and curiosity. She is one of the giants on whose shoulders we stand, as Barbara Romanowicz, a seismologist at the University of California, Berkeley, said: “She is one of the giants on whose shoulders we stand. Her work has been essential for understanding the structure and dynamics of our planet.”
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Relevant articles:
- The Woman Who Found the Earth’s Inner Core, JSTOR Daily, March 26, 2019
- Inge Lehmann: The woman who discovered the Earth’s inner core, BBC News, May 13, 2021
- Inge Lehmann: The Danish seismologist who discovered the Earth’s inner core, The Conversation, May 13, 2021
- Inge Lehmann: The woman who discovered the Earth’s inner core, The Independent, May 13, 2021
Originally published at https://trendydigests.com on August 21, 2023.
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