It is difficult to judge the mystery of our universe and our planet earth is also highly mysterious. One Danish Scientist named Inge Lehmann was curious about the mother earth. She was an amazing scientist and received a degree in mathematics. Later in the years, she became the world-famous earthquake researcher. She declared the fact about the earth’s core that it is solid, not liquid as assumed previously.
The story of Inge Lehmann is very inspiring for any of the female research scholars or scientists. Her passion for science made her an inspiration and she always managed to overcome all the obstacles in her life. She lived in an earthquake zone where she worked dedicatedly for many years. Because of her efforts, we all came to know about a very mysterious yet interesting fact about the earth.
About Inge Lehmann
Inge Lehmann was born in a small city Copenhagen, Denmark in the year 1888. Becoming a scientist for a female back in those days was not an easy task. She was lucky to have progressive parents and they themselves were science inclined. Inge Lehmann went to a co-education school where she explored all her science content with the help of experiments. While facing difficulties and sexism, she stood tall with her efforts and her contribution to science.
After the post-graduation, she began her work on seismology. She started working as an assistant in the “Royal Danish Geodetic Institute” which was one the best of its kind. Here, she got the opportunity to work in Greenland on the project of monitoring seismometers. This golden chance changed her life forever.
Seismology and its fact As we know, Seismology is the medium to study the earthquakes and all the other events connected to the movements under the earth. The field of seismology was not that advanced at that time but Inge collected vast data about earth’s innards. Inge Lehmann was continuously working on a similar theory about earth’s core but her data was not supporting the conventional thought of liquid core. Being a chief of the Danish Geodetic Institute, she started picking the no common ideas and performed many tests to support the theory.
In the year 1929, some seismographers in Europe found waves from an earthquake in New Zealand and they collected the data from it. She discovered the core concept of earthquake wave travel path and realized that to make it possible earth’s core can’t be liquid. Inge Lehmann presumed the earth’s core should be solid rock.
Legacy of Inge Lehman
Sooner her fellow scientists realized that her theory was right and that has inspired many people across the world. Inge Lehmann was a true pioneer in the male-dominated science world and her discovery changed the entire theory about the earth’s core. In the year 1936, her theory and papers on earth’s core entirely changed the views of the science community. Inge Lehmann was a legendary herself.
