MIQuakes Status Report March 4, 2012 Kazuya Fujita and Cris DeWolf The MIQuakes K-16 educational seismograph network consists of 20 stations, 18 of which are formal members of MIQuakes, 2 are universities and 16 are K-16 institutions. City School Sensor Code Open Lat (N) Long (W) Elev (m) Ann Arbor Skyline High AS-1 SKMI 10/27/11 42.305-83.778 293 Athens Athens High AS-1 STMI 6/15/11 42.086-85.231 271 Comstock Park Mill Creek Middle AS-1 MCMI 9/18/08 43.0371-85.6661 198 East Lansing MSU EAI AS-1 Slinky LNSM 1993 4/2/07 2/29/12 42.7315-84.4765 259 Flint Mott Comm. Coll. AS-1 MTMI 2/22/11 43.021-83.670 228 Grosse Pointe G. P. South High AS-1 GPMI 1/6/11 42.3911-82.9015 183 Hartland Hartland High EAI HRMI 1992? 42.6498-83.746 290 Houghton Houghton Middle* EAI 1996 47.109-88.566 294 Houghton MTU EAI 47.1198-88.5460 208 Ida Ida Middle AS-1 IMMI 10/17/02 41.9058-83.5717 194 Jackson Jackson NW High AS-1 JXMI 1/1/95 42.3298-84.4697 310 Marquette Marquette High EAI MSMI 2009 46.556-87.414 222 Mason MSU Affiliated EQ-1 9/2009 42.557-84.4434 280 Norton Shores Mona Shores Middle AS-1 NSMI 10/12/10 43.1958-86.2865 188 Okemos Okemos High EAI 1993? 42.6847-84.4574 262 Remus Chippewa Hills High AS-1 CHMI 9/1/02 43.6642-85.1505 338 Roscommon Roscom. Middle AS-1 7/21/11 44.493-84.616 350 Saginaw Ruben Daniels AS-1 RDMI 3/7/11 43.4222-83.9299 184 Middle Saugatuck Saugatuck High AS-1 SPMI 6/2011 42.6576-86.1985 186 Shepherd Shepherd Middle AS-1 SHMI 10/1/11 43.521-84.690 232 * not formally associated with MIQuakes in any way All of the stations are currently believed to be operating (although one or two may be running on an irregular basis). Two of the schools, MTU and IMMI are on line; IMMI flings to the IRIS SIS page. Currently, IMMI and CHMI are part of the jamaseis beta-testing. IMMI has been running under jamaseis since the fall, and CHMI has used jamaseis off and on. It is my understandings that both have made reports to Tammy Bravo. MSU just installed a slinky seismometer from Boise State no events have been recorded. It does appear very sensitive to
pinging in nearby heating pipes compared to the AS-1. The EQ-1 at Mason appears to record almost as well as the AS-1 at MSU, 17 km away. The most common problem encountered by AS-1 users has been the zero-level adjustment on the AS-1 black box. The majority of schools I have visited have miscentered the trace, resulting in odd or offset recordings which are then interpreted as black-box failures. The second most common issue seems to be with custodial staff either moving the sensors during cleaning or improperly packing up the seismometers (a particular problem with the more sensitive EAI-S102 sensors), especially over the summer. Other issues appear to be associated with school computer networks, with several schools having issues accessing the software (installed by a technician and teacher has no access), and others having automatic update, networking, and reboot problems. The teachers appear to have problems when things start to go wrong; the issue often becomes a back-burner issue and I (or other contacts) do not find out about it for several months or until the end of a semester. Most users are still not comfortable with the software especially as they do not use most of the controls with any frequency. Many issues with extracting and processing waveforms were dealt with in a workshop at MSU on October 29. A follow-up workshop is scheduled for April 14, at which nine schools are expected to have representation. Within the past year, Greg Waite has visited the Marquette site and troubleshooted the sensor and computer system there. Kaz Fujita has visited Hartland, Grosse Pointe South, Jackson NW, Mona Shores, Ruben Daniels, and Okemos for troubleshooting, and Ida and Chippewa Hills for site observations. MSU continues to issue regular alerts on notable records which will be archived on the MIQuakes page set up by Cris DeWolf, who has been the moving force behind MIQuakes from the K-12 side. There are irregular contacts between MSU and the schools as a result of the alerts; there is a better response when one of the teachers issues an alert or question. We are trying to identify a consistent series of activities which could be presented in workshops. One location activity was developed from the northern Illinois earthquake of February 10, 2010, using MIQuakes and other regional stations. Attached is a copy of a report on MIQuakes published by Cris DeWolf in the Michigan Earth Science Teachers journal and the central division of NESTA electronic newsletter.
MIQuakes Michigan Seismometer Network Do we have earthquakes in Michigan? Why should we have a seismometer in our classroom? For teachers and students alike these are pertinent questions especially with the last earthquake recorded in our state being in 2001. This event, which occurred near Prairie Lake, may or may not have been a tectonic event. It was also quite small with a magnitude of 2.9. The most recent event that was definitely tectonic occurred in the Central Michigan region on September 2 nd, 1994. It was also fairly small with a magnitude of 3.4. Earthquakes that occur outside of Michigan are often felt here however. On December 30 th, 2010 a magnitude 3.8 earthquake occurred near Kokomo, Indiana. This event was widely felt in southwest Lower Michigan. An extracted seismogram from the LNSM station for the Kokomo earthquake. There are also reports that the 8/23/11 Virginia earthquake was felt in the Detroit area. The extent to which an earthquake can be felt in our area depends not just on how close it is to us but also on its magnitude. The Virginia earthquake was a magnitude 5.8. What about even more distant earthquakes? Can they be felt here in Michigan? Since the late 1990s, a number of middle and high schools in Michigan have acquired seismometers for classroom use. These instruments allow us to feel remote earthquakes from many places on the planet. A screen capture of the seismometer screen at CHMI showing the record of a magnitude 6.5 earthquake off the Pacific coast of Mexico on 11/01/11. The first group of stations was part of the MichSeis network coordinated by the University of Michigan in the early 1990s and used the EAI-S102 seismometer. Later, Michigan Tech deployed some seismometers at Upper Peninsula schools under the UPSeis program. Starting in 2001, the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS), a university consortium to provide infrastructure and data for seismological studies, started the distribution of AS-1 seismometers nationwide. Over the past two decades a number of schools in Michigan have acquired AS-1 and EAI-S102 seismometers but have generally operated on their own with no coordination or local support. As the number of stations distributed through IRIS has increased, it has become increasingly difficult for IRIS to provide
timely support to teachers throughout the entire US. Thus, it has become increasingly desirable to have regional networks where teachers can support each other with help from local universities. A group of MESTA members with seismometers decided in early 2009 to bring our teachers helping teachers philosophy to seismology. About a year ago, a group of MESTA members interested in seismology met to develop both an advanced seismology workshop and a plan for the acquisition of additional classroom seismometers for distribution to K-14 schools in Michigan. On April 24, 2010, an informal MESTA seismology committee met at Michigan State University to distribute three seismometers, funded by MESTA and IRIS, and to outline what topics would be desirable in an advanced seismology workshop. This event also brought together teachers with two different seismometers; the AS-1 and EAI-S102. These instruments have very different characteristics and record waves quite differently (the AS-1 is a high frequency sensor, the EAI-S102 is a low frequency sensor). At the April 24th meeting we agreed to bring the schools in Michigan together under one umbrella to provide mutual support, both in operations and in developing activities for classroom use. At a third meeting in November, we proposed that MESTA support two workshops for teachers in 2011-2012. The first would be an instrumentation workshop in late spring, 2011, to distribute an additional five seismometers, subject to funding and instrument availability. The second workshop would be a series of Saturday workshops during the 2011-2012 school year that would provide the academic background for seismological topics, as well as classroom activities to be vetted by members of the MESTA seismology working group. A separate workshop in the UP is a possibility at the 2012 MESTA conference in Houghton. At our request, IRIS formalized a Michigan regional network under their Seismographs in Schools program (see http://www.iris.edu/hq/sis) as Michigan Quakes (MI Quakes, MIQ) on November 27. Through a competitive selection process that also included geographic dispersal as one of the selection criteria 5 additional AS-1 seismometers were provided to Michigan teachers on May 7 th, 2010. This brings the MIQuakes network up to 16 K-14 education institutions. Distribution of seismometers in the MIQuakes network. The April 2010 workshop covered the basics of installation and operation of the software that runs the AS-1 seismometer, AmaSeis. Participants also learned how to set up and operate their seismometers. The MIQuakes network is managed by MESTA MSU Liaison Kaz Fujita with assistance from Greg Waite at Michigan
Tech. Kevin Mackey at Michigan State and Carol Asiala at Michigan Tech also provide technical support. Operators of MIQuakes stations were encouraged to attend a follow-up workshop at Michigan State University on October 29th, 2011. Additional information about seismology was provided. Dr. Kaz Fujita works with MIQuakes teachers Participants also learned more about how to use data from their stations as well as others. One activity that was piloted with these teachers used sac files from 4 different stations in the IRIS network (some were also MIQuakes stations) for an earthquake that occurred in northern Illinois. The teachers worked through how to use AmaSeis with these files to learn how differences in P and S wave arrival times can be used to estimate the location of an earthquake epicenter. Teachers working with AmaSeis To facilitate sharing of data, lessons, and experiences using their seismometers with students at their schools both a Google site and a Google group dedicated to MIQuakes network users were created. Screen capture of home page of MIQuakes Google site. Screen capture of MIQuakes Google group. Plans are underway for a spring 2012 workshop to explore additional ways of using seismometers in the classroom. Potential topics include the physics of earthquake waves, how modern seismometers work, and how subsurface geology can affect wave behavior. Cris DeWolf Chippewa Hills High School cdewolf@chsd.us