author
Thomas Augustus Jaggar
1871–1953
A pioneering American volcanologist, he turned the close study of active eruptions into a lifelong mission and helped lay the groundwork for modern volcano monitoring in Hawaiʻi.
1 Audiobook
My experiments with volcanoes
by Thomas Augustus Jaggar
About the author
Born in Philadelphia in 1871, he studied geology at Harvard and went on to become one of the best-known volcanologists of his era. After witnessing the destructive volcanic disasters of 1902, he became convinced that volcanoes had to be observed continuously, not just during brief expeditions.
That idea shaped his most important achievement: founding the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory in 1912. He directed the observatory until 1940 and made Hawaiʻi a center for long-term research on eruptions, earthquakes, and volcanic hazards.
Remembered as both a scientist and an organizer, he helped push volcanology toward practical observation in the field. He died in 1953, but his work remains closely tied to the early history of volcano science in the United States.