Texas Educational Seismic Project

On this Christmas Eve, the Pacific Plate’s “Ring of Fire” is very active.  In the past 24 hours, several earthquakes with magnitudes M>5.5 have occurred around the Pacific Rim in: Canada, Guatemala, Argentina and Columbia.  These events have all been detected in Spring, TX by #RaspberryShake Station #R5DDF operated by Texas Educational Seismic Project.  Note that different filters have been applied to the seismograms – see the red text in bottom right corner of image for information.

Over the past 30 days, there have been eight earthquakes, with magnitudes M>2.5, occurring in West Texas.  The energy industry’s high-activity in the region is of key interest when monitoring the recent heightened event frequency near Pecos, Gardendale, Ft. Stockton and Mentone, Texas.  We do note that correlation does not equal causation.  But, we are intrigued.  On the map below, the circles represent the epicenters of these earthquakes….it’s a big State!

Did you know earthquakes occur, monthly, in Texas?  A recent “large” earthquake with a magnitude M3.0 occurred near the town of Pecos, TX.  Earthquakes with magnitudes 2.0 to 3.5 have been occurring more frequently across the State in the past 5 years.  There is speculation about the possibility these events are human-induced seismicity – partly because of active oil and gas productivity in the State.  Several local institutions have been studying the earthquake activity with a focus on detecting when, and where, the ground shakes.  Although these studies discuss correlation of seismicity with energy production and enhanced recovery operations, direct causation has not been confidently established (yet).  Regional and local seismic monitoring continues by citizen scientists, academics and private enthusiasts…. and of course by TXESP.  Below are some examples of earthquake activity in 2019 within Texas.

Read more from UTIG/TexNet here , TAMEST here, and Southern Methodist University here.

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DYK that seismographs record *any* ground motion, including local community activities?  This week we look at several examples of seismograms from a nearby railroad crossing.  Both the EQ1 and Raspberry Shake seismographs can detect the passing trains.  Shown below are unfiltered seismograms and associated spectrograms from Raspberry Shake Station RAD87.

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For several weeks TXESP has observed an odd and interesting seismic signal recorded on the EQ-1 seismograph.  During the 15:00 UTC hour (locally 9:00 am CST), we observe the seismogram shown below.  We are curious if this mysterious, consistent recording is detecting a local scheduled train? ground motion caused by the pool circulating on a program? pumpin at the nearest water station (less than 5km away)?  What does it look like to you?  Our guess is the train although we have been unsuccessful locating the nearest railroad crossing’s train schedule (its privately owned).  

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DYK that #seismologists have also served their Country? Help #TXESP continue **contributing to science**, through our service, and go beyond being only users of science!

Historically and currently, seismologists help monitor sub-surface #nuclear #weapons testing. #Seismographs detect the ground motion which occurs after a nuclear #detonation. The ground shaking produces seismic waves which can be monitored remotely by seismologists. This seismogram detected a nuclear explosion in #NorthKorea on 09/09/2016 at 00:30hrs UTC ; it was recorded on an EQ-1 seismograph in Spring, TX, USA.

NASA OPSPARC Competition

OPTIMUS PRIME wants you to identify NASA Spinoff technology in your world and test your skills at designing an innovation that will make your universe a better place! By taking on this mission, you will work with technologies that expand our knowledge of galaxies, black holes and other astrophysics-related objects. Just like an engineer, you will use an engineering design process to create your own spinoff that may solve a real-world problem for the stars and beyond. Using a combination of text, images, and videos, you will create a webpage with Adobe Spark for Education to share your ideas with NASA.OPSPARC is open to students in grades 3-12 and submissions are open through December 1, 2019. Learn more on the NASA OPSPARC website.

Comparing Technology While the Earth Moves….in #Nicaragua on November 1, 2019 at 15:24hrs UTC.  This moderate #magnitude M5.3 #earthquake’s epicenter was offshore and ~50kms deep below the sea floor.  Due to its location, the event did not cause damages nor injuries onshore.

The two #seismograms are nearly identical at the scale shown.  The event was recorded in Spring, TX (Station #E1TX, #RAD87) on an EQ-1 and a #RaspberryShake 1D seismograph.  Several wave forms were detected including: P, PP, PPP, S, SS, PCP and PCS.