Earthquake sensors tracked Superstorm Sandy

Earthquake sensors tracked Superstorm Sandy


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SALT LAKE CITY — When Superstorm Sandy blasted the East Coast last fall, rumblings in the earth were detected in Utah and across the country. That could prove helpful in storm forecasting in the future.

"The seismometers are really sensitive," said Keith Koper, director of the University of Utah Seismograph Stations. "They record billionths of a meter. So, very small motions of the ground."

Scientists at the seismograph stations analyzed 420 hours of earthquake data, and tracked that tropical storm by looking at its seismic waves, rather than its ocean waves. That research, led by Oner Sufri, a doctoral student in geology and geophysics, sheds new light on "exotic" or non-earthquake seismic activity.

Sufri presented his research Thursday at the annual meeting of the Seismological Society of America in Salt Lake City.


Twice, when the storm changed direction, seismic activity intensified. That information could help storm forecasters in the future.

On a map of the U.S., Sufri showed how the seismic intensity varied over 18 days as the storm neared the U.S., slid up the coast, and turned inland. In late October 2012, the superstorm created seismic waves as ocean waves crashed into the shore, and each other.

"It's amazing that storms, or the waves' interactions, are making that much seismic energy," Sufri said.

Twice, when the storm changed direction, seismic activity intensified. That information could help storm forecasters in the future.

"We might be able to use it to tell when a storm is about to turn," said Koper.

Quake Censors
Sandy wasn't the first storm to be sensed by quake stations. Others included:
  • Hurricane Katrina (2005) - instruments in California tracked the path of the waves.
  • Utah coal mine collapse (2007) - registered as a magnitude-3.9 quake.
  • Meteor explodes over Siberia's Ural Mountains (2013)- sent rippling shock waves that were detected by ground instruments.

There is no magnitude scale for that kind of ongoing storm energy, but the director of the seismic stations said it ranges from 2 to 3 on a quake magnitude scale.

"It's sort of exploratory science," said the director of the seismograph stations.

Seismographs around the world record all kinds of non-earthquake seismic activity. They pick up seismic activity from mining and mine collapses; storm winds, waves and tornadoes; traffic, construction and other urban activities; and meteors hitting Earth.

"The stuff is so sensitive, and we have so many seismometers these days, and they're on 24/7," said Koper.

The explosion at the fertilizer plant Wednesday night in West, Texas: magnitude 2.1. The landslide at Kennecott Utah Copper last week: the energy equivalent of a 4.5.

"It actually made really large seismic waves across the whole continent," said Koper.

He said new tricks with improved seismic data could reveal answers to all kinds of non-earthquake events in the future.

"We can use the same techniques that we use to study earthquakes to learn new things about these other seismic sources," Koper said.

Much of that work pioneered at the seismograph stations.

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Jed Boal

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