Bruce Bolt was a Professor of Earth and Planetary Science at the University of California, Berkeley

University of California, Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...

. Professor Bolt was a seismologist known as pioneer of engineering seismology

Seismology

Seismology is the scientific study of earthquakes and the propagation of elastic waves through the Earth or through other planet-like bodies. The field also includes studies of earthquake effects, such as tsunamis as well as diverse seismic sources such as volcanic, tectonic, oceanic,...

. He served for 15 years on the California Seismic Safety Committee leading public debate on earthquake safety in that state, and acted as a consultant on major projects throughout the world. As well, Bolt published a number of popular and technical books on seismology.

Early life and career

Bolt was born in Largs, New South Wales

Largs, New South Wales

Largs, NSW is a small town located in the Hunter Valley, about 1 hours drive north of Sydney.In the pioneering days it was established by Cedar getters, before the Lang family settlement in 1921....

 just north of Maitland

Maitland, New South Wales

Maitland is a city in the Lower Hunter Valley of New South Wales, Australia and the seat of Maitland City Council, situated on the Hunter River approximately by road north of Sydney and north-west of Newcastle...

 in 1930. He studied at the University of Sydney

University of Sydney

The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...

 obtaining his Bachelors Degree in 1952, Masters Degree in 1955 and a Doctorate in Applied Mathematics in 1959. He also lectured at Sydney University in Mathematics but developed an interest in mathematical modelling of the Earth's interior. He obtained a D. Sc from Sydney University in 1972 while working at Berkeley. After visiting the Lamont Geological Observatory in New York, he visited the Department of Geodesy and Geophysics at Cambridge University

University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...

 where he met Professors Perry Byerly and John Verhoogen of UC Berkeley who invited him there.

Career at Berkeley

Bolt started as Director of the Berkeley Seismological Stations (now the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory) in 1963 and served in that position until 1991. In that position, he was at the forefront of seismology especially as a pioneer of engineering seismology. He identified the impact of near-fault effects of earthquakes as well as the "fling" where the fault slips during an earthquake which has a strong impact on structures near the quake. Professor Bolt was elected to the US National Academy of Engineering in 1978 as recognition for his contribution to that profession. As Director of the Berkeley Seismology Centre, Bolt pioneered the use of digital recordings rather than paper readouts to read data.

Bolt identified that the epicenter of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake

1906 San Francisco earthquake

The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 was a major earthquake that struck San Francisco, California, and the coast of Northern California at 5:12 a.m. on Wednesday, April 18, 1906. The most widely accepted estimate for the magnitude of the earthquake is a moment magnitude of 7.9; however, other...

 was near Daly City, California

Daly City, California

Daly City is the largest city in San Mateo County, California, United States, with a 2010 population of 101,123. Located immediately south of San Francisco, it is named in honor of businessman and landowner John Daly.-History:...

 not near Olema, California

Olema, California

Olema is an unincorporated community in Marin County, California. It is located on Olema Creek south-southeast of Point Reyes Station, at an elevation of 69 feet ....

 in Marin County

Marin County, California

Marin County is a county located in the North San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. As of 2010, the population was 252,409. The county seat is San Rafael and the largest employer is the county government. Marin County is well...

 as had been previously thought. He also helped to design a simulation of the 1906 quake at the California Academy of Sciences

California Academy of Sciences

The California Academy of Sciences is among the largest museums of natural history in the world. The academy began in 1853 as a learned society and still carries out a large amount of original research, with exhibits and education becoming significant endeavors of the museum during the twentieth...

 museum in Golden Gate Park

Golden Gate Park

Golden Gate Park, located in San Francisco, California, is a large urban park consisting of of public grounds. Configured as a rectangle, it is similar in shape but 20% larger than Central Park in New York, to which it is often compared. It is over three miles long east to west, and about half a...

 which has been seen by millions of people. He has written a number of works including Earthquakes: a Primer in 1978 and Inside the Earth: Evidence from Earthquakes in 1982.

Professor Bolt served on the California Seismic Safety Committee for 15 years including a year as Chairman in 1986. In that position, he had a significant impact on California's earthquake safety legislation and helped to create that states mandatory system of earthquake hazard mapping.

He was a consultant on seismology for every major earthquake engineering

Earthquake engineering

Earthquake engineering is the scientific field concerned with protecting society, the natural and the man-made environment from earthquakes by limiting the seismic risk to socio-economically acceptable levels...

 project including on the Diablo Canyon Power Plant

Diablo Canyon Power Plant

Diablo Canyon Power Plant is an electricity-generating nuclear power plant at Avila Beach in San Luis Obispo County, California. The plant has two Westinghouse-designed 4-loop pressurized-water nuclear reactors operated by Pacific Gas & Electric. The facility is located on about in Avila Beach,...

 as well as international projects including the Aswan Dam

Aswan Dam

The Aswan Dam is an embankment dam situated across the Nile River in Aswan, Egypt. Since the 1950s, the name commonly refers to the High Dam, which is larger and newer than the Aswan Low Dam, which was first completed in 1902...

 and the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System

Trans-Alaska Pipeline System

The Trans Alaska Pipeline System , includes the Trans Alaska Pipeline, 11 pump stations, several hundred miles of feeder pipelines, and the Valdez Marine Terminal. TAPS is one of the world's largest pipeline systems...

. He loved ESS8.

Professor Bolt retired in 1993. He died of pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer refers to a malignant neoplasm of the pancreas. The most common type of pancreatic cancer, accounting for 95% of these tumors is adenocarcinoma, which arises within the exocrine component of the pancreas. A minority arises from the islet cells and is classified as a...

 in July 2005 at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Oakland

Oakland, California

Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...

. He was a citizen of the US at the time of his death.

Other contributions

During his career, Professor Bolt served as a member of a number of important scientific and academic organisations. These include:

• President of the California Academy of Sciences between 1982 and 1985;
• Member of the Board of Trustees for the California Academy of Sciences between 1981-92 and again in 1999;
• President of the Academic Senate at Berkeley in 1992-93; and
• President of the Faculty Club at Berkeley between 1994 and 2004;
• President of the Seismological Society of America in 1974;
• Bulletin editor of the Seismological Society of America between 1965 and 1972; and
• President of the International Association of Seismology and Physics of the Earth's Interior between 1980 and 1983.

Written works

Bruce Bolt published a number of works about seismology during his career. These include:

• Geophysics Editor Academic Press New York 1973 ISBN 0-12-460813-2
• Geological Hazards: Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Volcanoes, Avalanches, Landslides, Floods editor 1975 and 1977 Springer-Verlag New York ISBN 0-387-90254-6
• Nuclear Explosions and Earthquakes: the Parted Veil W.H. Freeman San Francisco 1976 ISBN 0-7167-0276-2
• Earthquakes: A Primer W.H. Freeman San Francisco 1978 ISBN 0-7167-0094-8-.
• Inside the Earth: Evidence from Earthquakes W.H. Freeman San Francisco 1982 ISBN 0-7167-1359-4
• Earthquakes 5 editions 1987-2003, 2003 edition published by W. H. Freeman New York ISBN 0-7167-5618-8
• Earthquakes: 2006 Centennial Update W. H. Freeman; Fifth Edition edition (August 5, 2005) ISBN 0716775484 and ISBN 978-0716775485
• Earthquakes and Geological Discovery Scientific American Library New York 1993 ISBN 0-7167-5040-6