See, Hear, Shake

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

I've been researching a lot about earthquakes lately, coming to terms with my new home and the realization that there will be a major, major earthquake here in the next 3 decades. I'm fascinated by earthquakes, moreso after the tiny one that I experienced a little while ago after moving here.
Today I've been reading about the 2004 Parkfield earthquake, one that was expected and probably the most studied ever. Parkfield, a tiny town in central California, is unique in that it seems to experience strong earthquakes on a more or less predictable timeline: on average, every 22 years (1857, 1881, 1901, 1922, 1934 and 1966). They were expecting one between 1988 and 1993, but it arrived a bit late -- in 2004.
Anyway, scientists have been set up in Parkfield for decades, and recently added tons of new data gathering equipment -- they're even digging a "well" down and through the San Andreas fault so that they can measure what happens.
I came across two fascinating files that give a new perspective to earthquakes. First off, here's a video of the magnitude 6 earthquake, taken from a live camera set up on the fault. Second, this intriguing audio file of what an earthquake sounds like, captured with a "geophone" deep within the earth.

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