On January 23, 1857 in Volosko near Opatija, one of the greatest Croatian scientists of all time – Andrija Mohorovicic was born. His discovery that the Earth’s womb is not homogeneous, but that there are at least two different layers (crust and mantle) is considered to be the greatest scientific discovery made by a scientist working in Croatia. According to him, the boundary zone between the bark and the mantle was named Mohorovičić’s discontinuity.
At first Mohorovicic dealt with meteorology, and in 1892 he became the director of the meteorological observatory in Zagreb’s Grič. Over time, he became interested in seismology and was able to obtain the first seismographs in Zagreb. He made his greatest discovery when he studied the seismographic records created during the 1909 Pokupsky earthquake. He has collected records from several European seismological stations on this earthquake. He discovered a discontinuity in the Earth’s interior based on the different propagation of earthquake waves.
Today, similar layers on the moon and Mars are also called after him. How much it is valued in world science is the fact that according to Mohorovicic it was named one crater on the moon and one asteroid (8422 Mohorovicic).
Andrija Mohorovičić died in Zagreb in 1936 and is buried in Mirogoju Cemetery.
