Our Silent Protector by Monica Gonzalez

           

Fordham University has many hidden relics. If you don’t ask about them or take the time to research them, you might not even know they are there. Many of these artifacts are either hidden in a building or out in plain sight. One of these artifacts includes Rose Hill’s William Spain Seismic Observatory.

            The William Spain Seismic Observatory can be easy to miss if you are constantly jetting around campus in a hurry, which is what the majority of our students do. You might not even realize that the small house it is located in is in fact an observatory. At a quick glance, the observatory looks like it might be a tomb where they hold the bodies of our fallen Jesuit brothers (considering we have a cemetery for them, anything is possible). But actually this small house makes a big impact on Fordham history. This observatory is well known for having the oldest seismic recordings in the U.S. The observatory can also be seen to have some religious significance especially since the door is adorned with the plaque of Saint Emygdius.

            Saint Emygdius is the patron saint of earthquakes (fitting, right?). Therefore, it is only right to put a plaque of his on the door of an observatory that is used to observe earthquakes. Not only does this give us protection against earthquakes, it gives us peace of mind that we are safe from any earthquakes attacking Fordham University. Although not all members of Fordham are religious, this religious plaque can be seen by its practicing members, such as myself, as having done its job so far. We haven’t had an earthquake thus far, but the small object located in the beautifully adorned shack next to Freeman Hall, has done a great job at detecting earthquakes from other places in the world. It seems that although the observatory goes unnoticed at times, the seismograph works hard in detecting small shifts in our tectonic plates, even detecting Fordham traffic at times when traffic is intense, (that’s usually everyday but hopefully the seismograph doesn’t react to the everyday traffic because that will only wear it out).  Our Silent protector is constantly monitoring parts of the world that we don’t even think about while we go about our busy lives. We shuffle around campus not even realizing that the seismograph could potentially pick up signals from our steps if a large enough crowd were to arrive on campus. Such small shifts in the geological makeup of the earth make a bigger impact on the world than we know. The William Spain Seismic Observatory plays an important factor in our society and has a great religious importance in our community. Since Fordham is a Jesuit University, the plaque placed on the door of the observatory gives it a greater meaning and allows us to venerate Saint Emygdius for the work he has done and for protecting our school while the observatory houses the seismograph that works to track the earthquakes around the world.