Texas Educational Seismic Project

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.

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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