1. Geophysics in the 8th Grade:
Earthquake Waves
Right in
Their Own Backyard
IRIS 1999
Wayne D. Pennington
Michigan Technological University

2. Volunteer-Run Temporary Seismograph Stations
Simple Software
Run for 2-3 Months
Use Volunteers; train them first
Cheap, easy….
We hope!

3. Mexican earthquake, magnitude 6.8

4. UPSeis:
Upper Peninsula Seismic Experiments In Schools

5. The UPSeis Program One of several established programs
In-classroom experience for K-12
University personnel visit schools
Volunteer efforts
SEG Foundation purchased equipment

6. Working Closely With
MichSeis
Michigan Seismology

7. Can non-permanent stations record Earthquakes?
Yes, we do it all the time
Just wait long enough, for a...
Really big one
Nearby one
Both of the above
Seismogram from MichSeis Web site

8. How do schools get started?
Teacher or principal...
Learns about UPSeis
Calls us
We visit school and install
In classroom, away from feet
Explain to each class

9. Step-by-Step: 1 Place Seismograph in classroom
Leave it there for 2-3 months
Record earthquakes

10. Step-by-Step: 2
Record Eq’s
Locations:

11. Step-by-Step: 3
Return and “interpret” seismograms

12. The Interpretation Process
Distribute
seismograms
earthquake lists
travel-time curves
string
globes P S LR

13. Analyze the Events Identify earthquake from times on list
Locate earthquake on globe (lat,lon)
Find distance to hometown (string)
Use travel-time curves to identify arrivals of seismic waves
Advanced classes: find magnitude

14. What do the students learn?
About Earthquakes
About Geophysics in general
That real people can do real science
How to read a globe!!!
Charts and equations

15. How is this now possible? 1
New, low-cost ($1500) Broad-band Seismographs
Research quality
Easy to install and maintain

16. How is this now possible? 2
Low-cost computers serve as Data-Acquisition units
A-D boards are still expensive, getting cheaper
Low sample rates

17. The Seismometer We Use The S102 from EAI Uses an RF distance detector
EAI = Electronic Acoustics, Inc.

18. What other equipment is used?
Macintosh Computer
(any with a full-length NuBus slot)
National Instruments A-D board
Plan to expand program with other:
Computers
A-D boards

19. Equipment Plan
A to D
That’s All!

20. But we don’t have a seismic “pier”
That’s OK! We use the floor.
Preferably ground floor, but we’ve used upper floors
Big earthquakes are big enough to record anywhere!

21. What about people walking?
Doesn’t make a difference
Experiments in class prove it,
and are fun!

22. What’s Next? Improve Software User-friendly Machine-independent
Utilize cheaper A-D boards
Fool-proof

23. Why Am I Telling You? You can get involved Next year, we hope
to have a better program in place
any company can sponsor workers
to use equipment in schools
and help our young people be excited about science!

24. And Whom Do I Thank? SEG Foundation Principals and Teachers
Equipment purchase
Software re-write
Principals and Teachers
Especially Mr. Jim Luoma, Houghton
Original Software author
Dr. Larry Ruff, University of Michigan