Thomas Jaggar | |
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Born | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. | January 24, 1871
Died | January 17, 1953 Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, U.S. | (aged 81)
Education | Harvard University (BA, MA and PhD) |
Occupation | Geologist |
Spouses | Helen Kline
(m. 1903; div. 1914)Isabel Maydwell (m. 1917) |
Children | 2 |
Father | Thomas Augustus Jaggar |
Thomas Augustus Jaggar Jr. (January 24, 1871 – January 17, 1953) was an American volcanologist. He founded the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory and directed it from 1912 to 1940. The son of Thomas Augustus Jaggar, Jaggar Jr. graduated with a PhD in geology from Harvard University in 1897. In 1902, he was one of the scientists that the United States sent to investigate the volcanic disasters at La Soufrière volcano, St Vincent, and Mont Pelée, Martinique, which he credited with inspiring him to make a life's work out of geology. He became head of the department of geology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1906.
Jaggar traveled to Hawaii in 1909, where he began fundraising to establish the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO). Jaggar became the first director of HVO in 1912, and remained at HVO until 1940, when he retired and became a research associate in geophysics at the University of Hawaii. Jaggar married twice in his life, and had two children. He died in 1953 in Honolulu, Hawaii.