Texas Educational Seismic Project

RESEARCH SEISMOLOGISTS, EDUCATORS, AND COMMUNITY SCIENTISTS COLLABORATE TO MONITOR AN INTRIGUING VARIETY OF EARTH-QUAKING EVENTS

July 6, 2022 – by Alan L. Kafka (Weston Observatory, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Boston College), Jay J. Pulli (Raytheon BBN Technologies), Kristi R. Fink (Texas Educational Seismic Project), Christopher Stapels (MathWorks), Kasey Cannon (Weston Observatory, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Boston College), Donald McCasland (Blue Hill Observatory and Science Center), Keith L. McLaughlin (Leidos Dynetics-LInC), Stephen R. McNutt (University of South Florida), Jacob N. Kafka (WeirdHat.com), Richard Block (Snow Star Farm), and Megan J. Sharkey (Boston College).

READ HERE —->> Shakers and Makers!

There have been many significant #earthquakes in North America this month. IRIS Station #E1TX and Raspberry Shake Station #R5DDF have recorded events in California, Mexico and Alaska. Images shown below, some filters have been applied. Shown first is a magnitude M4.8 earthquake on 12/19/2021 at 10:27 UTC near La Libertad, Mexico.

Also recorded, a magnitude M6.2 on 12/20/2021 at 20:10 UTC near Petrolia, CA

A magnitude M5.9 earthquake on 12/21/2021 at 22:42 UTC near Port Alsworth, Alaska

And most recently, a magnitude M6.0 12/22/2021 at 23:22 UTC near La Cruz de Loreto, Mexico

On Sunday, 11/28/2021 at 10:52hrs UTC, a MAJOR magnitude M7.5 earthquake occurred near Barranca, Peru. The hypocenter was very deep at ~112km. The wide-felt, strong shaking caused damages and injuries and are still being reported as of Monday, 11/2/2021. The event was recorded here in Spring, TX, USA on a Raspberry Shake seismograph, Station R5DDF (shown below). The seismogram has a LP 0.8 Hz filter applied. Photograph courtesy of Reuters News Organization.

More information about the event can be found HERE.

Did you know that seismographs can detect many “things” in/on/around our world? Beyond earthquakes and landslides, seismographs can provide data and information about how people move within populations, trains, hurricanes, helicopters and even meteors. Read our Abstract HERE —>

Learn MORE at the Eastern Section of the Seismological Society of America’s session from the co-authors at the annual meeting. This is a collaboration of work from: A. L. Kafka (Weston Observatory, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Boston College), J. J. Pulli (Raytheon BBN Technologies), K. R. Fink (Texas Educational Seismic Project), C. Stapels (MathWorks), K. Cannon (Weston Observatory, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Boston College), D. McCasland (Blue Hill Observatory Science Center), K. L. McLaughlin (Leidos Dynetics-LInC), J. N. Kafka (WeirdHat.com), R. Block (Snow Star Farm), and M. Sharkey (Boston College).

Previously planned for Atlanta, ES-SSA will be fully virtual and open to all. While ES-SSA focuses primarily on advancing earthquake science in Central and Eastern North America and intraplate seismology, we also welcome contributions from other aspects of earthquake and seismological studies.

Follow this LINK to view our POSTER.

The annual Texas Women and Girls in STEM Summit, hosted by Texas Girls Collaborative Project (txgcp.org), will be held on the UT Austin campus on December 10, 2021 from 9:00a – 3:00p. Join TXGCP for their 5th annual summit designed to share best practices, connect organizations and individuals, and showcase outstanding efforts to increase the number of girls in STEM and support the retention of women in STEM careers.  STEM professionals and all who are engaged in education, outreach, recruitment, and/or retention of women and girls in STEM are invited to join in.

Call for session proposals open NOW.
Stand Up for STEM Award nominations open NOW.

On July 29, 2021 a major earthquake occurred offshore Alaska. The massive quake was recorded in Spring, TX, at IRIS Station E1TX (shown first) on an EQ1 seismograph. The event was also recorded on a Raspberry Shake (Station R5DDF) co-located in Spring, TX; filtered seismograms (shown last) of the waveforms were easily identified and are very intriguing.

“The magnitude-8.2 Chignik Earthquake, which struck at 10:15 p.m. local time on Wednesday (0615 GMT Thursday) just off the Aleutians, was the strongest felt in the United States since an 8.7 quake ripped through the western Aleutian Islands in 1965.”

Because the epicenter was located offshore , away from highly populated towns, and at a depth greater than 30 km, injuries and damages were limited.

The M8.2 quake was significant enough for a tsnuami warning to be issued for the immediate region.

“In Alaska, small tsunami waves measuring under a foot (30 cm) above tide level were observed in Sand Point, Old Harbor, King Cove, Kodiak, Unalaska and Alitak Bay, according to the U.S. National Tsunami Warning Center (NTWC).”. Read more from Reuters HERE.

A LARGE magnitude M6.6 earthquake happened overnight at 06:33hrs UTC. The epicenter was offshore, but had a shallow depth of 10km and was felt on land. Small chance of liquefaction from the shaking. The event was so strong, it was detected here in Spring, TX by #irisstation #E1TX and #raspberryshake station #R5DDF. THe image below was recorded on an EQ1 seismometer.

Offshore #ElSalvador experienced a magnitude M5.9 #earthquake today at 08:45hrs UTC. The event was detected by two seismometers here in #Spring, TX by #irisstation #E1TX and #raspberryshake station R5DDF. A comparison of the two seismograms is shown below; a bandpass filter of 0.2 to 1.2 Hz has been applied.

COMPARING TECHNOLOGY – NICARAGUA – 01/24/2020 at 21:59 UTC (3:59 pm CST) a preliminary magnitude M5.3 earthquake shook the Central American country and was recorded here in Spring, TX. Shown are comparisons of seismograms and spectrograms (frequency plots) from EQ1 and Raspberry Shake seismographs collocated in Spring, TX. NOTE the lower frequency threshold for the EQ1 instrument.

“Small moves Ellie, small moves.” is more than a famous quote from the motion picture ‘Contact’, it is also an important mantra for many Scientists.  In geophysics, a small increase/decrease in the value of a measurement may easily influence an interpretation…. or “miss”- interpretation.  See the image below…. this graphic illustrates how “small moves” in frequency can yield different interpretations of seismic waves.  Detecting ground motion from the ocean tides, for example, requires instrumentation which can measure very low frequencies; conversely, detecting the ground motion from the sound of fireworks requires a seismograph that can detect very high frequencies.  When we observe ground motion recorded on a seismograph, illustrations can help us begin to interpret the data.  Image is courtesy of Peter Bormann, Klaus Klinge and Siegfried Wendt.