(Victor) Hugo Benioff

Seismologist and inventor, born in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was a physicist at the Carnegie Institution (1924–37) before joining the California Institute of Technology (1937–64). He devised and developed many seismic detection instruments, including a seismograph for measuring travel-time curves of earthquake waves that became the basis for the Geneva Conference nuclear detection system. He was the first to describe the plane of earthquake foci extending from Pacific Ocean trenches to the earth's shallower mantle, now known as the Benioff zone.

He is best remembered for his work in charting the location of deep earthquakes in the Pacific Ocean.

After graduating from Pomona College in 1921, Benioff began his career with the idea of being an astronomer and worked for a time at Mt. Dr. Benioff is considered a genius in the design of earthquake instruments. One of his first instruments, created in 1932, was the Benioff seismometer, which senses the movement of the earth - these instruments are now used in every country in the world. Equally famous is the Benioff strain instrument, which records the stretching of the earth's surface. One of his most recent accomplishments was a refined version of the old Benioff seismometer which has given seismologists more knowledge about the cause of very deep earthquakes.

Benioff noticed that earthquake sources get deeper under the overriding plate proceeding away from the trench. Thus, that pattern of earthquakes is known as a Benioff zone.

From the early 1930s, Benioff also worked on creating electric musical instruments; He continued developing these instruments for the rest of his life, working for over two decades with pianist Rosalyn Tureck and also, towards the end of his life with the Baldwin Piano Company. It is thought that Benioff died before he perfected these musical instruments.