Juan de Fuca Ridge By: Terry Dillman ~ Of The News-Times
The HMSC researchers have
recorded more than 30,000 earthquakes
off the Pacific Northwest
coast during the past 13 years, most
with a magnitude of 2.0 to 4.0. They
usually originate along the Juan de
Fuca Ridge, an underwater mountain
range 200 to 300 miles west of
Juan de
Fuca Ridge Researchers discovered that quakes occur daily, interspersed with occasional "swarms" of as many as 1,000 quakes. The key value of the hydrophone system lies in its ability to detect and record earthquakes. Public education about those undersea earth- quakes and their potential hazards is a key component derived from such on-going earthquake research. From January to March 2003, the HMSC Visitor Center featured a display called "The Big One: Earthquakes in the Pacific Northwest." Creat6ed by the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture in collaboration with the region's leading earthquake experts, the exhibit focused on the geological processes that cause earthquakes, earthquake detection and measurement, the hazards they can create, and the steps everyone can take to protect their homes and families. Earlier this week, Dziak and his team installed a computer display in the visitor center, one hooked up to a seismometer, the other to a hy- drophone in a nearby fish tank. Visitors can stomp their feet next to the seismometer and watch the shock wave it creates on the computer screen. Or they can clap their hands near the hydrophone, and again see the results in graph form on the computer screen. On the wall be- hind the computers, two charts ex- plain how researchers record earth- quakes with seismometers and hy- drophones, and take-along informa- tion on how to survive an earth- quake and a resulting tsunami is available at the computer station."Undersea earthquakes near the coast can produce tsunamis that can strike quickly and with little warn- ing," Driak said. |
