Pod Academy

Disaster and emergency management expert, Samantha Ridler, explores the beginning of modern seismology . The earth has, since it creation been convulsed by earthquakes.   But mankind has only relatively recently come to study them in a scientific manner.  And much of this is thanks to an Englishman called John Milne. It is perhaps surprising that a man born in Liverpool in the 1850 is considered by some as the ‘Father’ of seismology.  After all the UK experiences very few earthquakes  that are of a scale even noticeable by residents. The majority of earthquakes that the UK does experience are often out in the North Sea. However John Milne studied Geology and Mining in the UK and was sent to Japan to teach about these subject, to the Japanese that had only a few decades earlier been forced from seclusion to open up to the rest of the world by the US. Now Japan is very different to the UK in it’s Geology.  Japan is part of the Pacific ring of fire and sits on top of the junction of 4 tectonic plates pushi