Texas Educational Seismic Project

Following the #magnitude M6.3 #earthquake main shock off the coast of #Oregon on August 29, 2019, a preliminary M5.9 aftershock earthquake has occurred this morning, September 5, 2019 at 15:02hrs UTC, there is no tsunami risk. #RaspberryShake Station RAD87, operated by Texas Educational Seismic Project (#TXESP), recorded the event.  In the image below, a 1.0 Hz low-pass filter has been applied to the #seismogram.

HURRICANE DORIAN UPDATE #12 – 09/05/2019 at 00:39hrs UTC (8:39 pm EST)- Tropical Storm winds are lashing the #Georgia and #Carolina shores tonight; Dorian’s projected track falls very close to #Charleston, SC on Thursday afternoon/evening – the #seismograph in #NewHope, SC shows a corresponding sharp, **dramatic** amplitude increase.  The Weather Channel’s projected storm path is also shown below.

Hurricane Dorian and an Earthquake UPDATE #9 – 09/03/2019 at 00:00hrs UTC – captured on the #seismograph in #NewHope, SC… a #magnitude 5.9 #earthquake occured in the North Atlantic Ocean. #Dorian continues moving northward 1 mph heading up the FL coastline – compare the seismograph images from Aug 30 to Sept 2!  The increase in “noise” is the recording of increased ground motion caused by the increasing wave height and frequency pounding the shoreline.  

Tracking a Hurricane Using a Seismograph in New Hope, South Carolina

Tracking a Hurricane Using a Seismograph in the Disney Wilderness Preserve, Orlando, Florida

**Current** Radar Map of Hurricane Dorian, courtesy of The Weather Channel

Can #hurricanes be detected by #seismographs? Let’s watch three seismographs across Florida and South Carolina as #HurricaneDorian gets closer to the US Southeast Coast.  Because seismograph stations are impacted by internet outages, local weather conditions, re-calibration and mechanical failures, #TXESP is observing three seismographs simultaneously.  They are located in #Nokomis, FL (#IRIS Station #BCFL), Disney’s Wilderness Preservation near #Orlando (#IU Station DWPF) FL, and in New Hope, SC (#US Station #NHSC).  We can begin to see the effect of Dorian’s approach on the recorded seismograms ….note the increase in “noise” on the 2nd seismogram images at each location.  This is actually detecting the increase in ground motion (called microseisms).  This amplified motion is created by the ocean waves from the hurricane which beat on the ocean shore.

Weather radar Images are courtesy of #TheWeatherChannel and #AccuWeather.

Time-lapsed images from Nokomis, FL

Time-lapsed images from Disney’s Wilderness Refuge, Orlando, FL

Time-lapsed images from New Hope, SC

This morning,  a LARGE preliminary #magnitude M6.3 #earthquake struck off the coast of #Oregon at 8:07 am CST.  Ground motion was felt in many different cities, including Eugene and Portland. There is no tsunami risk. #RaspberryShake Station RAD87, operated by Texas Educational Seismic Project (#TXESP), recorded the event.  In the image below, a 0.5 Hz low-pass filter has been applied to the #seismogram.

The August heat in Texas is unbearable – today’s forecasted high temperature is 99 degF and a heat index exceeding 110 degF!   TXESP’s EQ-1 vertical, educational seismograph is located in a covered garage….what effect does this extreme yield?  Take a look at the images below – between 14:00 and 18:00 hrs UTC (09:00 am to 1:00 pm CST)….notice how the seismogram record (the horizontal lines) appear to be getting closer to each other?  Now look at outside air temperature profile during this time period…. the outside air temperature increased from 85 degF up to 91 degF !

The dampening mechanism on the EQ-1 seismograph is motor oil.  As the temperature of the oil increases, the oil expands and its volume increases.  The increased volume of oil pushes the seismograph’s balancing beam upward – this upward motion creates a misleading image (shown below)…the horizontal lines appear to be coming closer together over the last 4 hours —>>>  this is a direct result of the rapidly increasing air temperature! Intriguing, isn’t it.

Now, we can ask ourselves a better question – does the air temperature inside the garage increase at the same rate as the outside air temperature?  What would you expect to see on the seismogram?

COME SEE #TXESP and #BCESP at the #SEG 2019 National #Conference in #SanAntonio, Texas on September 17th.

Texas Educational Seismic Project (TXESP), together with the Boston College Educational Seismological Project (BCESP), share a mission to take real world events and turn them into “Teachable Moments”.  In pursuit of our mission, both TXESP and BCESP use seismology as an exciting medium for inviting students into the world of scientific monitoring; we are highly motivated to promote inquiry-based learning through investigation of earthquakes recorded by seismographs in classrooms. It is truly fascinating that it is possible to record earthquakes that occur across Texas and New England using a new, simple seismograph – the Raspberry Shake seismograph. Seismographs record many types of ground motions: earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, human-made explosions, and even local traffic! Historically, real-time earthquake monitoring and analysis required very large, high cost, and professional laboratory quality instruments.  However, very recently the Raspberry Shake seismograph revolutionized citizen science capabilities.  The question we ask is “Can the Raspberry Shake seismograph provide high quality data similar to other educational and laboratory seismographs?”  Raspberry Shake offers a simple “plug-and-play” affordable seismograph which offers great flexibility for users.   Affordability and flexibility expands opportunities for low to median income (LMI) students – giving them research experiences investigating what is recorded on their classroom seismograph and promoting a valuable positive step in the direction of inquiry-based science education and college readiness.

Join us as we raise fund this year to purchase classroom mineral specimens for our geology and engineering activities – we appreciate your continued support! —>> HERE