El legado científico del licenciado geómetra Pedro Nolasco Gutiérrez Gutiérrez (1855-1918)

Abstract

Pedro Nolasco Gutiérrez Gutiérrez (1855-1918), Licentiate, Geometer, prominent scientific figure of Costa Rica between late 19th century and early 20th century. This article pretends to analyze his biography, his scien- tific work and the impact of his intellectual activities in the Costa Rican society in that time. Don Pedro knew about the astrometeorology, the geology and the seismology and used the first field for forecasting earthquakes and the climate conditions. Dr. Henri Pittier, Chairman of the National Physical Geographic Institute of Costa Rica, critized this methodology. The diffusion of Gutiérrez calendars converted him in the most popular scientific person during this period. Although, today the earthquakes prediction is very difficult to analyze, but is very important to study the methodology used by Pedro Gutiérrez because he predicted some quakes. For this knowledge, was named, “Brujo del Observatorio”.