Poor visibility on the 3 d prior to the sinking of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s vessel, Endurance, during November 1915, hampered navigator Frank Worsley’s attempts to record its position. Thus, whilst the wreck was located in the Weddell Sea in March 2022, the drift path of Endurance during its final 3 d at the surface remained unknown. We used data from a modern meteorological model to reconstruct possible trajectories for this unknown portion of Endurance’s journey.

This article describes the international seismological cooperation at the start of the last century and how this cooperation changed due to WWI. These changes were the direct reasons leading to the foundation of the Deutsche Seismologische Gesellschaft (DSG) in 1922, which changed its name to the Deutsche Geophysikalische Gesellschaft (DGG) 2 years later. It then describes the further development of the relationship between German geophysicists and their colleagues until the start of WWII.

Gauß, Weber and Humboldt initiated the systematic observation of the Earth’s magnetic field in Germany. The first geomagnetic observatories were installed in Munich, Berlin and Wilhelmshaven. The Potsdam Magnetic Observatory was officially opened on 1 January 1890. Due to anthropogenic disturbances, a sub-observatory was installed in 1907 in the village of Seddin. The launch of the DC-powered service of the Berlin suburban railway system in 1928 terminated the observations in Potsdam.

The Madden–Julian Oscillation (MJO) is an important phenomenon in tropical meteorology first discovered in the early 1970s by Roland Madden and Paul Julian. In this paper, Roland Madden relates the story of developments in theory, observations, and analysis techniques in the 1960s that led to that discovery.

Due to anthropogenic disturbances on the Potsdam Magnetic Observatory, a sub-observatory was installed in 1907 in the village of Seddin. Only variometer recordings were performed there. The launch of the DC-powered service of the Berlin suburban railway in 1928 influenced the observations in Potsdam and Seddin. The absolute measurements were moved to Seddin, and a new observatory was planned in Niemegk. Seddin Observatory closed in 1932.