Ridgecrest, CA Earthquakes and Seismograms

USGS Recent Earthquake Viewer

It would be difficult to miss news about the recent Ridgecrest earthquakes in California that erupted on the Fourth of July.  Five days later there have been hundreds of smaller earthquakes in same area showing the pattern of the faults.  Indeed, in the last hour that I had the image on the wall today, USGS recorded more than 40 smaller earthquakes.  Check out the right-angle split of the local faults in the center bottom of the photo above.  Clicking on the photo will get to you the USGS page, but with the exact view.  This is where our University of Oregon Price Science Commons VizLab shines.  We are showing ALL of the recorded in the area for the last seven days. Many computer systems are not ready to show this full data set from the USGS feed and there is a warning from USGS if you try.  However, it was a breeze on our system.  Instead the default is to shows a recent 4.5 magnitude quakes and above.  On our link we have it showing the terrain map instead of the lower bandwidth requiring gray field.

The Southern California Seismic Network will allow viewers to see a current snapshot of seismogram, but that left me lacking.  I would rather see a continuously recording output so I have linked the picture below of the 7.1 Ridgecrest earthquake (With its more local Hardy earthquake buried in the shadow of the larger Ridgecrest quake) to a live seismograph feed from the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network.  You can also find a map of seismometers with many color coded triangles.  Those marked ‘bb” are broadband systems and have better signal. Likewise selecting the right “band” from the drop down menu for the seismometer location allows the view to select a band that tracks a signal that can come from a much farther distance than just recording local seismic data.  For distance, pick a band with H as the middle of the 3-letter band choice.

Additional information on the Ridgecrest quake series and its origins/implications can be found on the site Temblor.net. Click on the photo below to get to this very recent article on the event!