North America: The Jesuit Seismological Association (1814–2000)

Abstract

Jesuit observatories in the United States and Canada had the common characteristic that most of them were installed in colleges and universities and only a few, as in Europe, were in faculties of philosophy for Jesuit students. Those dedicated to astronomy were created in the second part of the nineteenth century and, with the exception of the Observatory of Georgetown University, were small and used more for demonstrations for students than for scientific work. Among theses were the observatories of Creighton College, Marquette University and the University of Santa Clara. Meteorological observatories also began very early, but never became very important. Those established in John Carroll University, University of Santa Clara, and Saint Louis University will be mentioned. The most important contribution of Jesuit observatories in North America was in the field of seismology and is associated with the Jesuit Seismological Service (JSS) and, later, with the Jesuit Seismological Association (JSA). This was a cooperative effort of a number of Jesuit colleges and universities which formed a network of seismological stations. The first central station was in Cleveland and was later in Saint Louis. As we shall see, a good number of American Jesuit seismologists working at the JSA stations made important contributions to this science in the first half of the twentieth century.

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