Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
ancient natural philosophers, Chamberlin viewed science in ethical terms
as an antidote to fear.
the members of the Lawson commission shared this cautious optimism.
they might even have been mistaken for boosters themselves, since they
claimed that the quake had released the stress on the San Andreas fault for
a long time to come.
39
Geschwind has characterized them as typical Pro-
gressives, valuing “objectivity, efficiency, and expert guidance.”
40
However,
Geschwind also makes clear that it took time for these scientists to settle
on what he calls their “progressivist” strategy—meaning “deference to ex-
pertise” rather than “grassroots organization and protest,” and the incorpo-
ration of seismologists into the “regulatory-state apparatus.”
41
Otherwise
known as technocracy, this solution was not a foregone conclusion.
42
The Seismological Society of America
From 1906 to 1933, these scientists were experimenting with various ap-
proaches to the politics of seismic safety. At first, they turned hopefully
to the public for support. In July of 1906, Lawson, Reid, and Leuschner,
joined by Weather Bureau officials McAdie and Marvin, began plans for
what would become the Seismological Society of America. the society was
formally founded in late August, with the aim of “the acquisition and dif-
fusion of knowledge concerning earthquakes and allied phenomena and
[enlistment of ] the support of the people and the government in the attain-
ment of these ends.” the annual dues were set at just $2, cheap compared
to those charged by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific and the Sierra
Club at the time ($5 and $3, respectively).
43
Scientists made up fewer than
half the members, with the rest drawn primarily from engineering and ar-
chitecture. Indeed, McAdie later credited the idea of the SSA to his next-door
neighbor, W. R. eckart, an engineer at the Union Iron Works whose mete-
orological instruments McAdie borrowed during the fire of 1906.
44
John
Muir joined the society, as did other members of the Sierra Club. From the
start, the plan was to organize an instrumental network to record both local
and distant earthquakes, as well as a network of “200 to 300 cooperating
observers who, every time they felt an earthquake, would report the quake's
time of occurrence, duration, intensity, and other pertinent information to
the central bureau. In this way . . . a complete catalogue of earthquakes on
the Pacific Coast might be assembled.”
45
the term “cooperative observers”
suggests that the SSA modeled its network on that of the Weather Bureau.
Previous catalogs of California earthquakes had been designed to prove
the insignificance of the seismic threat. the SSA's founders hoped instead
