The current Geophysical Institute of the University of Porto (IGUP) was inaugurated in 1885 with the designation of Meteorological and Magnetic Post of the City of Porto, having as its first director the captain of the fleet José Maria Soares Andrea Ferreira (1835-1901).
Later its name was changed to Observatório Princeza D.Amélia. In 1901 the Observatory was handed over to the Polytechnic Academy of Porto and in 1911 it was transferred to the Faculty of Sciences, to which it belongs to this day.
With the end of the monarchy, the Observatory underwent a new nomenclature change, in 1913 it became known as the Meteorological Observatory of Serra do Pilar, however in 1946 it was renamed the Geophysical Institute of the University of Porto.
The Observatory had the function of obtaining meteorological data for the forecast of the weather, important for fishermen, traders and navigators, currently, it has more than a century of meteorological observations. Later, it became involved in research and teaching in areas such as Seismology, Phenology and Geoelectricity.
History of the WWSSN Seismic Station
In 1963, the US government and the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey installed a seismic station at IGUP, which became part of a network of 120 world stations – World-Wide Standard Seismographic Network (WWSSN). The seismological station in Porto, known as PTO station, consisted of two three-component seismographs, a set of long-period seismometers and another set of short-period seismometers. The records were recorded on photographic paper using galvanometers and in 1988 upgrade to thermal paper.
The creation of this network of seismic stations, financed by the US government, takes place with the main objective of monitoring underground nuclear tests, mostlly those carried out by the former Soviet Union. This need for surveillance gave birth to a new era for seismology: forensic seismology or military seismology as it was known in the Soviet Union.
Currently, the PTO seismic station is still in operation, although without its main objective of monitoring nuclear events, but rather in the detection of seismic activity of natural origin and the study of the planet on which we live.
