Watch the waves from the M5.7 #utahearthquake roll across the USArray Transportable Array seismic network (usarray.org )! #earthquake #utquake THREAD
This animation, called a Ground Motion Visualization (GMV), shows the motion of the ground as detected on USArray seismometers - each dot is a seismic station and when the ground moves up it turns red and when it moves down it turns blue.
Waves generated by an earthquake travel around and through the earth, but they get smaller (attenuate) as they move away from the earthquake location, just like ripples in a pond.
Once the earthquake waves are far enough away from the location where the earthquake occurred they can no longer be felt by people, BUT they can still be detected by sensitive seismic instruments.
That's what this animation is showing - the very, very small waves from the M5.7 earthquake traveling both through the earth and across earth's surface - in most of the US the waves are much too small to feel but not too small to measure.
The scale is along the bottom. It is in micrometers (microns). For reference, the diameter of a human hair is ~50-75 microns.
Some of the instruments look like they are experiencing shaking before the seismic waves arrive. This is due to the setting of the animation and the calibration of the seismic instrument.
This particular GMV is a brand new beta product generated using the vertical component of the GMV. To produce a better coverage, the video is based on all available stations from any FDSN data center, using the fedcatalog service (service.iris.edu/irisws/fedcata…).
The video uses the available BHZ, LHZ, or HHZ channel to produce the video, therefore provides a better coverage.
To see past GMV's visits ds.iris.edu/spud/gmv/17971…
To see past GMV's visits ds.iris.edu/spud/gmv/17971…
To learn more about seismic waves visit iris.edu/hq/inclass/sea…
MAJOR CORRECTION - this was made using *all* data available through FDSN web services, not just USArray.
