Quake Watch 2011

reply to post by StealthyKat


Are you in Florida? I thought you were somewhere else.

The microseisms are probably coming from deep in the Atlantic. We have a force 6 warning for small craft so there must be something in the Atlantic.

You may have clear sky but Florida does not and there is a storm building in the Atlantic.

Pics 'cos it did happen

reply to post by PuterMan

Also wondering if there's a bit of weather around the GOM at the moment. Besides the MickeyMouse the Disney seismo I'm also watching TA.646A -- Port Sulphur, LA, and TA.936A -- Nth Padre Island, Corpus Christi, TX, and they both look a bit rough. 646 is running around -10 to +10 microns/sec with one blip up to around -25 and +25 at about 17:25:45, and 946 is about -8 to +8 microns/sec. (I'm only following BHZ on all of them.) Still very, very minor but suggests some ocean action in the region, maybe.

Edit to add: I'd guess that Florida seismo also is subject to the fact that the peninsula is much more exposed to Atlantic Ocean forces than seismos within the GOM itself. That could be a factor. I'm happy to accept Puterman's assessment that it's nothing to worry about.

If Puterman starts saying OMG OHNOES!! after viewing a seismo then I know we are in trouble **.

Mike

** This is bait, by the way...

reply to post by JustMike


HI Mike,

See my link above to weather map/satellite.

reply to post by PuterMan

Thank you for the note. If I could just type faster I'd be able to keep up.

But yes, that sat image pretty well demonstrates what I was surmising about Florida's peninsula bit (typing carefully here) being rather exposed.

Maybe I'm not as dumb as I thinctunked I wuz.

Mike

reply to post by PuterMan


I'm in Louisiana. My friend lives in Florida. I didn't realize storms could affect seismographs!

Originally posted by diamondsmith
Don't tell me that this is normal[earthquake.usgs.gov...].I don't buy it!!!

Well I managed to track down Pentagon

No I emailed a contact who passed the request on and the response is this:

MEGW (Megler, Washington) was a 6-channel station (3 broad-band, 3 strong-motion), installed over a decade ago as part of the seismic monitoring for Tsunami hazard, under the acronym CREST, that nobody around now can easily remember what it means. MEGW was installed in -- yes IN, a power substation, that takes lots of traffic, and is noisy noisy noisy. While the station continues to operate, it was replaced functionally by station RADR. On a nearby hill, RADR is a much quieter site.
I'll append an image of today's seismogram from the vertical broadband channel at RADR--the big earthquake you see is the M6.9 just offshore of Peru. Hope this helps your understanding of the situation at MEGW.

RADR.UW..BHZ.2011.302

Cheers!
P.

So there you have it. My theory on boats was wrong which explains why it sounded like a whistle when I listened and why it did not look quite like PAYL. As I said at the time I wondered if boats would affect the siesmo at the distance. Actually thinking about it this does explain the seismo at Market Rasen (LMK) which is also said to be caused by generators and looks very similar. I wonder if surges in power use cause the 'cultural' appearance. Makes sense.

So basically the long and short of it is forget MEGW, which was what I said anyway.

reply to post by StealthyKat


Yes silly me, I just could not see your location as i was typing the reply.

Certainly looks nice and clear over you. Would you like some of our rain? It's free.

reply to post by PuterMan


Yes please! We haven't had any significant rain all summer....the ground is as hard as cement....even the trees are dying!

reply to post by JustMike


Hi Mike....there is an area of cloudiness in the gulf, but I don't think it's storms or affecting the Louisiana gulf coast....the storms have all moved to the east of us. Here it's blue skies and sunshine!

reply to post by PuterMan
Wow thanks nice find,still USGS maybe they upgraded[www.opticsinfobase.org...]

A very nice place to visit[www.sfmuseum.org...]

reply to post by StealthyKat

Yes, but sometimes the microseisms recorded on the seismographs are actually bigger after a storm has passed the area where the seismo is. And there can be a lag of some hours as well. It's a fascinating subject but rather than try explaining I'll let an expert do it.

Here's a great article (roughly two pages) written by John E. Ebel, a seismologist from Boston College in Weston, MA. It's called Watching the Weather Using a Seismograph. (It's on the Seismological Society of America website.)

It includes some graphics and it's fairly easy to follow (even for me). One of things he notes is the 6-second-period, sub-one-hz traces that often show on seismos near coastal regions. It's a classic sign of ocean water movement and whenever I'm watching near-coast seismos it's one I always allow for. On west-coast seismos, whenever I see rather large but fairly constant traces I like to chekc how close the seismo is to the coast and also what the weather is -- or has been during the past day.

Best regards,

Mike

reply to post by JustMike


I see....I will check that out...thanks! It's good to know you are watching. I don't know why, but like you, I get this recurrant feeling about the area...did you read about what happened to me last night? I went and talked to my neighbors, and I didn't tell them what happened...I just said "did anything unusual happen last night?"....and they confirmed it. I don't know what it was, but at least I know I'm not going crazy!

reply to post by StealthyKat

Yes, the GOM simply bothers me, partly because it is so incredibly quiet most of the time from a seismic perspective, much quieter than I (in my own small way) feel that it has any right to be.

On the other matter, I hunted back and found what I guess is the experience you were referring to:

Originally posted by StealthyKat
I had an experience yesterday similar to your friend. I was lying on the bed watching TV, and it felt like someone pushed it hard several times. It moved horizontally. My friend was in the living room, and yelled to me "did you feel that?!" She had the same experience in the recliner she was sitting on. I have no idea what it was, but I've never felt that before....it was as if someone walked up to the bed and put their hands on the frame and pushed it toward the wall rapidly 3 or 4 times.It was aprox 8:00 last night

As you and your friend both experience the same thing in different parts of the house it sounds like it was possibly seismic in origin. Most interesting. As you were lying on a bed I'd guess that the horizonal motion might be more noticeable that any in a vertical direction.

EDIT: Hmmm... I recall someone posting yesterday on this thread or elsewhere that his girlfriend reported a feeling as if she was suddenly moved vertically while standing (in car park, I think it was). This was some time yesterday afternoon or evening, local time in that part of the US. It was somewhere in southern US, IIRC. I'll see if I can find the post.

Mike

reply to post by JustMike


I think this is the post youare looking for:

Originally posted by TXTriker
I would like some of our resident experts to look at this link. This is a station in Hockley, TX. It states that the start date is 10-28-11.

earthquake.usgs.gov...

Are all the readings from the Peru quake? I first looked at it a 18:45 CT but it has activity showing later?

Am asking because a friend wanted to know if there had been an earthquake today. She was waiting for her car and said it felt like she was lifted up and then dropped. She was in downtown Houston and felt it about 3:30 or so.

Thanks.

I am about 30 miles south of downtown Houston and did not feel anything similar, nor did my wife who is extremely susceptible to motion sickness and would have felt even a tiny tremor.

reply to post by JustMike

One of things he notes is the 6-second-period, sub-one-hz traces that often show on seismos near coastal regions. It's a classic sign of ocean water movement and whenever I'm watching near-coast seismos it's one I always allow for. On west-coast seismos, whenever I see rather large but fairly constant traces I like to chekc how close the seismo is to the coast and also what the weather is -- or has been during the past day.

It shows at Yellowstone and Arkansas as well. It can be from deep Atlantic swells, not just storms and the period is anything between 6 and 30 seconds. Shows as the dog tooth signal with small breaks.

Arkansas is showing some of it now. WHAR.AG.00.HHZ.2011.302

reply to post by jadedANDcynical

Yes, that was the one I was looking for... Thank you for that. I began searching in the "wrong room" I guess. I usually do. Murphy's Law of Finding Things -- I usually start in exactly the wrong place!

Anywhoo, it's interesting even if the one reported by Triker's friend is not something you noticed yourself. But if it were a small, local event, it's possible you wouldn't, perhaps?

reply to post by PuterMan

Swells! That's the word I was trying to think of!

Yes, forgive me for not expanding on what I wrote. You're quite right of course; in fact I seem to recall some discussion on the matter on the Yellowstone thread many moons ago about this very subject. I recall also the problem with wind-affected seismos at YS in some places and various other forms of non-seismic sources, like a generator that used to kick in and had a bad suppressor or something that interfered in the traces. (LKWY? Can't recall but think it was.)

But for all that, you've mentioned some points I missed completely or simply was too addled to even recall correctly, so I'm grateful for that. (Not for being addled, though. Don't like it at all. )

Mike

Originally posted by diamondsmith
reply to post by PuterMan

 

Wow thanks nice find,still USGS maybe they upgraded[www.opticsinfobase.org...]

Very nice website.
To bad it requires a paid subscription.

reply to post by JustMike


Another member posted on my noise thread that she saw a post somewhere of someone who experienced the same thing I did at 8:15 (it happened to me at aprox 8pm more or less) But.....it was on the east coast. I don't know....but I never felt that before. I know I wasn't imagining things because when I asked my neighbors, I didn't say anything to que them...I just asked if anything happened the night before....and they said the same thing as I.

I have recently been following RSOE.
I is normal to have so many > 3 earthquakes around volcanoes ? It seems that there have been a lot of those recently (Turkey, Indonesia, Greece, Spain, Ecuador...)

hisz.rsoe.hu...