December 14, 2009
Scientists seek Seattle-area volunteers to host special seismographs
Scientists at the University of Washington and the U.S. Geological Survey are on the hunt for sites in the Seattle area to place special seismographs designed to be easily installed in urban areas and to record moderate to strong shaking from earthquakes.
The NetQuakes program is recruiting volunteers who will allow seismic recorders, called accelerometers, to be placed on their properties. A similar program is already operating in San Francisco, where the Seattle effort was announced today (Dec. 14) during the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union.
The Seattle program will start with 20 “citizen scientists,” with the hope of having as many as 500 of the special seismometers operating within a few years, said Stephen Malone, a UW professor emeritus of Earth and space sciences and former director of the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network.
“I have already installed one instrument, plus one at another temporary site, and we are starting to actively look for more sites. We have 20 instruments that need to be installed within a month or so and 20 more will be arriving soon,” Malone said. In the San Francisco area, 68 instruments have been installed in the last nine months.
The Pacific Northwest Seismic Network, based at the UW, is teaming with the U.S. Geological Survey on the NetQuakes program in the Seattle area. The ideal site is a 1- to 2-story building of less than 4,000 square feet and without a large basement, located on a quiet street within a half-mile of a business district.
Engineers use records of ground motion close to large earthquakes to develop construction techniques that will prevent buildings from collapsing during earthquakes. The records also can be used by emergency response agencies to quickly understand where damage is likely to be the most serious to help with response and recovery.
Malone said placing accelerometers close to urban structures such as office buildings, bridges, overpasses and pipelines will provide data to help understand why they fail during earthquakes. Such recordings are rare, particularly in densely populated areas, he added.
“Unfortunately, Seattle is subjected to strong earthquake shaking every decade or so and weak shaking more often. With a variety of types of structures and many different soil conditions that can affect shaking, we need a well-distributed set of instruments to learn what is needed to improve our chances of riding through future large earthquakes with minimal damage,” he said.
Seismic monitors would occupy a 2-by-2-foot area on a concrete floor at or near ground level — a garage or daylight basement, for example — where the seismograph can be bolted, Malone said. A nearby power plug and an Internet connection are required, though little bandwidth is used because the unit will send very small data files just once an hour, while longer files will be sent only after a significant earthquake. Any data gathered, whether from an earthquake or simply from the recorder being bumped, will be visible on a Web page within an hour.
Those chosen as NetQuake hosts would have to:
For additional information about the NetQuakes program or to sign up as a volunteer host, see http://www.pnsn.org/OPS/netquakes.html.
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For more information, contact Bill Steele, information director with the seismograph network, at 206-685-5880 or bill@ess.washington.edu.
