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Stomp! A new seismology display near the Tsai Performance Center is generating a lot of miniature earthquakes. Rachel Abercrombie, a CAS assistant professor of earth sciences (second from right), and Joel Sparks, laboratory manager for the department (right), installed a seismometer that measures vertical shaking in the hallway outside CAS Room 131, the department of earth sciences' main office. Geoffrey Abers, a CAS associate professor of earth sciences and associate chair of the department (left), initiated the project to give CAS pedestrians a window into earthquakes and efforts to understand them. Viewers are encouraged to stomp their feet and watch a computer monitor display the force of the vibrations. “Pretty much every time you come down the hall, you'll see somebody stomping in front of the display,” Abercrombie says. “It's really generated a lot of interest.” In addition to describing how a seismometer works, the display gives a general introduction to the dynamic forces that cause earthquakes, the science of seisomology, and the challenge of predicting future quakes. A second computer monitor flashes between Web pages with maps of the epicenters and magnitudes of recent earthquakes around the world (see www.iris.edu, www.liss.org, and www.usgs.gov). An accompanying poster provides updates on recent seismic events, such as the devastating magnitude 6.6 quake that shook Bam, Iran, on December 26. There's also information on the field of seismic hazard prediction. “We can't predict where or when an earthquake will occur,” Abercrombie says, “but we can go out and look at where the faults are, where the plates are moving, and then come up with a good idea of what the probability is of a certain level of shaking at a particular location in the next 50 years.” Viewers with more questions about seismology or earthquake hazards can visit www.bu.edu/es/earthquake and e-mail queries to earth@bu.edu. Photo by Vernon Doucette
16 January 2004
Boston University
Office of University Relations