Harry O. Wood | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 31, 1879 Austin Texas |
| Died | 1958 (aged 78–79) USA |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Harvard University |
| Known for | Wood-Anderson seismometer |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Seismology |
| Institutions | University of California, Berkeley Hawaiian Volcano Observatory California Institute of Technology Carnegie Institution for Science |
Harry Oscar Wood (1879–1958) was an American seismologist who made several significant contributions in the field of seismology in the early twentieth-century. Following the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco, California, Wood expanded his background of geology and mineralogy and his career took a change of direction into the field of seismology. In the 1920s he co-developed the torsion seismometer, a device tuned to detect short-period seismic waves that are associated with local earthquakes. In 1931 Wood, along with another seismologist, redeveloped and updated the Mercalli intensity scale, a seismic intensity scale that is still in use as a primary means of rating an earthquake's effects.