I reviewed the history of earthquake catastrophes and the patterns in earthquake fatalities over the last few hundred years.
Students completed an in-class activity on forecasting the number of earthquakes into the future. The exercise is available on Canvas.
I reviewed the impact of shaking on human-built structures, presenting examples of the types and amount of damage that the strong shaking near a strong earthquake can produce.
No in-class exercise.
Exam
We continued experimenting with the arduino-based accelerometers (sensors, seismometers, etc). Students quickly completed an in-class activity identifying the source of a three-component accelerations.
Between now and the end of the semester, each student much take one of the portable sensors to record two “deployments”. For details, please see the class slides, which are on Canvas.
I talked about seismic instrumentation and seismograms. Students began working with Arduino microprocessor kits to construct simple seismometers.
We discussed Wednesday’s M7.3 earthquake off the coast of Japan.
I lectured on some things we can do with an understanding of seismic waves and seismograms – location and magnitude. Students completed the in-class exercise on location, and took the exercise on magnitude home to complete (as a homework).
I reviewed the four types of seismic waves and how to “read” seismograms.
Students completed an in-class activity related to reading seismograms.
The 25 March exam will consist of
You should study the in-class activities to review how you performed the various data analyses. I will provide equations as needed with one exception, I expect that you know that
\[time = \frac{distance}{speed}~.\]
The following is the list of potential essay questions. These questions should be answered with five-to-ten good sentences. I encourage you to include a hand-drawn cartoon or simple graphic, a timeline, etc. to help you explain a topic. You must support your answers with specific information from class notes or the readings. I will not ask all of these, but I may ask any of them.
I reviewed seismic intensity measures, older, but still relevant measures of the damage and impacts of earthquakes that provide one way to compare historic and modern earthquakes.
Students complete an in-class exercise related to the 2016 Pawnee, OK earthquake and the information available for significant earthquakes on the US Geological Survey web site.
Today, students completed on in-class exercises. “Can you outrun a tsunami” using video frame from the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake tsunami.
While working, students watched the video linked below, which documents the arrival of the 2011 Tohoku Tsunami in Kesennuma City, Japan. Kesennuma is in the Miyagi Prefecture of northern Japan. As of September 2015, the city population was 65,434 (google). The city is near the northern end of the 2011 rupture, and like much of the region, was hit by a strong tsunami following the event.
East coast of Honshu Japan (from Google Maps) showing the location of major cities, including Kesennuma (to the north). Source: Google.
Zoom into the Kesennuma Region, showing the location of the bay and rivers. The video was shot along the small O River meandering from the upper right down into the bay. Source: Google.
Paul Earle of the US Geological Survey virtually visited class to discuss the mission and operations of the USGS’s National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC).
If you want to sign up for earthquake alerts (text messages, etc.) visit:
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/ens/
(if you do, ask only for notification of large earthquakes (M≥7) at the start, or you may be inundated with messages).