From San Francisco to Tōhoku – 111 yr of continuous earthquake recording in G?ttingen

摘要

In 1902, the so-called Erdbebenhaus (earthquake house) was builtin the garden of the Institute of Geophysics of the University of G?ttingento host and protect the very sensitive and fragile seismographs designed by Emil Wiechert.These instruments were the standard at their time, and they are still in operationtoday, documenting 111 yr of almost continuous seismological observations. Since 2005,the observatory is owned by the Wiechert'sche Erdbebenwarte G?ttingen e.V.(Wiechert's earthquake observatory in G?ttingen, registered society). This society aimsat extending the observational record and protecting the observatory as a cultural heritage.In this paper we review the history of the observatory in the last 111 yr. Special attentionis given to the developments in the last decade, when the observatory and further historicbuildings and instruments changed ownership. Due to the efforts by the society, the observatoryis still running now and open to the public. In addition, it is a part of the German RegionalSeismic Network and, thus, observations can be used for scientific investigations.