Montessus de Ballore, a pioneer of seismology: The man and his work

Ferdinand de Montessus de Ballore was one of the founders of scientific seismology. He was a pioneer in seismology at the same level as Perrey, Mallet, Milne and Omori. He became familiar with earthquakes and volcanoes in Central America (1881–1885). After his experience in El Salvador his interest for understanding earthquakes and volcanoes oriented all of his life. Back in France he worked out a most complete world catalogue of earthquakes with 170.000 events (1885–1907), and completed his career being the head of the Chilean Seismological Service (1907–1923). Many of his ideas were in advance of later discoveries. He was an exceptional writer and published more than 30 books and hundreds of papers.