Inge Lehmann was a Danish geophysicist who discovered the Earth’s inner core.
She was born in 1888 in Copenhagen.
She studied mathematics at the Universities of Copenhagen and Cambridge.
Initially he worked in an insurance company. Then he became interested in seismology and in 1928 she was admitted to the Geodetic Institute of Denmark.
In 1936 she conducted seismic researches in New Zealand and discovered the Earth’s inner core, which is made up of iron and nickel, behaves like a solid and is not superheated and liquefied as previously thought by scientists.
Her observations were adopted by scientists and seismologists.
In 1953 she resigned due to disagreements with her colleagues and moved to the USA. There she continued her research.
A few years later she discovered that the longitudinal and transverse seismic waves at a depth of 220 to 230 kilometers show abrupt transitions. In her honor this phenomenon was named Lehmann Discontinuity.
She was honored with several awards for her work.
She died in 1993 in Copenhagen at the age of 104.
[Source: http://www.sansimera.gr]
