Research Access

Oldham writes in 1906

…..there remain two important questions to be answered, namely the size of the core and the rate of transmission of the waves in it. As regards the size of the core, we have seen that it is not penetrated by the wave-paths which emerge at 120°; and the great decrease at 150° shows that the wave-paths emerging at this distance have penetrated deeply into it.  Now the chord of 120° reaches a maximum depth from the surface of half the radius, and we have seen that the wave paths up to this distance are convex towards the centre of the Earth, so it may be taken that the central core does not extend beyond 0.4 of the radius from the centre.

P 470 Proc. R. Soc. Aug 1906.  "Mr R. D. Oldham on the constitution of the Interior of the Earth."

Richard Dixon Oldham was born in Dublin 31 July 1858, the son of Louisa Matilda Dixon of Liverpool and Thomas Oldham (b.1816) the first Director of the Geological Survey of India. He studied at Rugby, and the School of Mines & joined the Geological Survey of India in 1879 where he initally worked in the Himalaya. In 1893 he revised the Geology of India and compiled several other reference works. In 1885 with Edgeworth David he visited sites in the Hunter River Valley, Australia, and recognised evidence for glaciation in Late Palaeozoic rocks. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1911, and was the President of the Geological Society of London 1920 - 1922. In 1909 he lived in the village of Shawford, Hampshire. In 1917 he lived with his elder sister in Broomfield Road, near Kew Gardens. He spent the last years of his life in southern France but returned to Wales where he died in the Gwalia Hotel, Landrindod Wells 15 July 1936.

He considered himself a geologist little interested in seismology. Sir Harold Jeffreys praised his achievement in being the first to recognize p- and s- waves in early seismograms, and characterized him as "the only man I ever met who did first rate work in a subject that disinterested him". His studies of earthquakes in India and the propagation of seismic waves led him to discover the core of the Earth (see panel left).

If you have any further information about the life of this remarkable man, please contact me. This page will be updated from time to time as more data become available. I thank Christine Hancock, Rugby, Warwickshire for obtaining copies of Oldham's early articles.

A sampling of his more than 93 published articles and commentaries 1874-1934.

1874 Subwealdon Explorations, Rep. Natural History Society of Rugby School for 1874, 17-22 (1874)

1874 Geological Expedition to the Wyken Colliery near Coventry, Rep. Natural History Society of Rugby School for 1874, 26-27 (1874)

1880 Note on the Naini Tal landslip (18 September 1880) Rec. Geol. Surv. India 13, 277-282 (1880)

1882 The Cachar earthquake of 10th January, 1869, by the late Thomas Oldham edited by R. D. Oldham, Mem. Geol. Soc Ind, XIX, 1-98, (1882)

1882 The thermal springs of India, by the late Thomas Oldham edited by R. D. Oldham, Mem. Geol. Surv. of India, 19, 99-161 Calcutta,1882

1882 A catalogue of Indian earthquakes from the earliest time to the end of A.D. 1869, by the late Thomas Oldham edited by R. D. Oldham, Mem. Geol. Surv. India, 19, 163-215 (1882)

1884 Note on the earthquake of 31 December 1881, Rec. Geol. Surv. India,17(2) 47-53

1888 A bibliography of Indian Geology being a list of books and papers relating to the Geology of British India and adjoining countries, published to the end of A. D. 1887, , printed by the Superintendent, Government Printing Press Calcutta, 1888.

1893 A Manual of the Geology of India Chiefly compiled from the observations of the Geological Survey 2nd edition revised and largely rewritten by R. D. Oldham, 543pp. Calcutta

1899 Report on the great earthquake of 12th June 1897  (incl. the reports by  P. Bose, G. Grimes, H.Hayden, T. LaTouche and E. Vredenburg) , Mem. Geol. Surv. India,29, pp.1379, Calcutta

1900 List of aftershocks of the great earthquake of 12th June 1897, Mem. Geol. Surv. India, 30(1), 1-102, Calcutta

1900 On the Propagation of Earthquake Motion to Great Distances, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. Lond, 194, 135-174, 1900.

1903 Diurnal variation in frequency of the aftershocks of the great earthquake of 12th June 1897 , Mem. Geol. Surv. India,35(2), 117-155,    Calcutta

1904 Aftershocks of the great earthquake of 12th June 1897, Mem. Geol. Surv. India,35(3), 1-23, Calcutta 1904

1906 The Constitution of the Earth, Quart. J. Geological Soc. Lond., 62, 456-475, 1906

1909 Recent Earthquakes. Geographical Journal, Vol. 33, No. 3 (Mar., 1909), pp. 294-297 doi:10.2307/1776903

1914 On the Effect of the Gangetic Alluvium on the Plumb-Line in Northern India Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Containing Papers of a Mathematical and Physical Character, Vol. 90, No. 615 (Apr. 1, 1914), pp. 32-41

1926 The Cutch earthquake of 16th June 1819 with a revision of the Great earthquake of the 12th June 1897,   Mem. Geol. Surv. India, 46, pp.80-147, Calcutta