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November 2004 Newsletter

Aloha
Catch a wave and youre sitting on top of the world. -- Brian Wilson, Beach Boys I have finally achieved a rather quirky and quixotic goal that I have had in mind for fourteen years. I constructed a Lehman style seismometer and acquired a magnitude 6.8 earthquake originating in the Solomon Islands. This seismometer uses a pendulum boom to measure horizontal ground motion. It has a period of 14 seconds, which is suitable for measuring teleseismic events. This concept has been around for one hundred years or so. Japanese seismologist Fusakichi Omori measured the 1906 San Francisco earthquake using a horizontal pendulum seismometer located in Tokyo. This type of seismometer is now referred to as a Lehman seismometer after James D. Lehman of James Madison University, who popularized this design in several science magazine articles in the late 1970s.
Sincerely,

Feature Articles

Homebuilt Lehman Seismometer

Solomon Island Earthquake

Tom Irvine

Figure 1. Lehman Seismometer The boom is a horizontal pendulum. It has a period of 14.2 seconds, equivalent to a natural frequency of 0.071 Hz. A sensor at the free end measures the displacement. The boom length is 64 inch. The total frame height is 35 inch. The boom has a knife edge that pivots against a bolt head in the lower cross-beam of the frame. The boom is suspended from the frame by a wire cable. The cable is attached to the top cross-beam of the frame. The other end of the cable is attached to the boom, about twothirds of the distance from the pivot to the free end of the boom. The pivot point is offset from the top cable attachment point. Thus, the boom oscillates as if it were a swinging gate. The plate supporting the frame has three adjustable mounting feet. The feet can be adjusted to tune the pendulum to the desired natural frequency. Furthermore, the wire cable has a turnbuckle which is used to adjust height of the free end of the boom. The detached frame in the center of the figure is used for assembly and to limit the displacement during tuning.

Figure 2. Displacement Transducer The sensor is a non-contact inductive linear displacement transducer. The model is Omega LD701. The sensor outputs a voltage proportional to the distance from the sensor head to the steel target, which is suspended underneath the wooden rod section of the boom. The inductive sensor was my third, and by far most successful, measuring solution. I highly recommend this transducer. The first sensor was a linear variable displacement transducer (LVDT) with its spring removed. The LVDT, however, had too much friction which increased the natural frequency of the boom to an unacceptable value. The second sensor was a magnetic coil attached to the boom. The coil moved between the poles of a magnet, thus inducing a voltage proportional to the velocity. This is the classic sensor method used with most Lehman seismometers. The signal requires tremendous amplification. Regretfully, my coil, magnet, and amplifier set-up missed the Parkfield, California earthquake. This setback led me to the inductive displacement sensor, which has proven to be successful.

Figure 3. Damping Method The lead disk is used for ballast. The pan contains canola oil which is used for viscous damping, both in the vertical and horizontal axes. A horizontal plate is connected to the disk and is fully submerged in the oil. Furthermore, the bottom side of the disk dips into the oil. The resulting viscous damping is 9.8%. The thin aluminum plate at the free end of the beam was used for an alternative damping method that was abandoned in favor of the oil method. The displacement sensor is also shown in this figure.

Figure 4. Pivot End of the Boom This end of the boom is actually a chisel blade. Its edge butts up against a chrome plated bolt head. Ballast weights are located on the plate below the pivot point.

Figure 5. Nicolet Vision Data Acquisition System The trace is the displacement time history of the Solomon Island earthquake as measured by the Lehman seismometer via the inductive sensor. I use this same acquisition system for measuring pyrotechnic shock in launch vehicle stage separation tests. I also use it for rocket nozzle frequency response tests. The Nicolet is a completely gold-plated Cadillac solution for the Lehman seismometer, but I wanted to do this science project with some style. The Nicolet sample rate is set to 50 samples per second. Its lowpass filter is set to 5 Hz.

Figure 6. Highpass Filter The Krohn-Hite filter is used to highpass filter the displacement signal at 0.03 Hz prior to its input to the Nicolet system. It also provides a 20 dB gain. This filter was purchased on eBay.

Figure 7. DC Power Supply for Displacement Sensor

SEISMOMETER FREQUENCY & DAMPING CALIBRATION 5 fn = 0.0705 Hz T = 14.2 sec Damp = 9.8%

RELATIVE DISPLACEMENT

-5

10

20

30

40

50 TIME (SEC)

60

70

80

90

100

Figure 8. The seismometer was set in to oscillation by tapping the ballast disk near the free end. The resulting signal is approximately a damped sinusoid.

Here are some references for building seismometers:

1. "The Amateur Scientist," Scientific American, pp 152-162, January, 1963. 2. Lehman, J.D., Practical seismograph tracks tremors, The Science Teacher, v. 44, no. 8, 43-45, 1977. 2. Walker, J., "How to build a simple seismograph to record earthquake waves at home," Scientific American, vol 241, #1, pp. 152-161, 1979. 3. Averill, G.E., "Build your own seismograph: An earth-shaking, in-class project," The Science Teacher, vol 62, #3, pp. 48-52, March 1995.

Solomon Island Earthquake by Tom Irvine

Introduction The Solomon Islands consist of over 900 islands, some of which were formed by volcanoes. These islands are located near the boundary where the northward-moving Indo-Australian plate is subducted below the Pacific plate. The Solomon Islands are a part of the Pacific "Ring of Fire." Volcanoes and earthquakes are common along this ring. As an example, Kavachi is an active underwater volcano, located approximately 25 km south of Vangunu Island in the Western Solomon region. This volcano had an eruption in May 2002. October Earthquake A magnitude 6.8 earthquake occurred about 65 km SSE of Kira Kira, San Cristobal, which is one of the Solomon Islands. The

date was October 8, 2004. The focal depth was 37.5 km. Fortunately, no injuries or property damage were reported. A formal description of the earthquake from the U.S. Geological Service is given at the end of this article. Earthquake Seismograms The Earth is an extraordinary conductor of seismic energy. Earthquake waves of sufficient magnitude that originate on one side of the globe can be detected by seismometers on the opposite side. I was thus able to measure waves from the Solomon Island quake on my Lehman seismometer, located at my home in Mesa, Arizona. The results are plotted in the following figures.

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LEHMAN SEISMOMETER HORIZONTAL RESPONSE TO SOLOMON ISLAND EARTHQUAKE UTC 2004/10/08 08:27:53

RELATIVE DISPLACEMENT

S P LQ

500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500 5000 5500 6000 6500 7000 7500 8000 TIME (SEC)

Figure 1. The time is referenced to the earthquake occurrence using the USGS data. The plots Y-axis is labeled as relative displacement because it is the response of the boom relative to the ground. Further calculation would be required to estimate the true ground motion. The time history shows that the Earth is remarkably reverberant. The oscillations last well over one hour. The phase components are P S LQ primary wave secondary or shear wave Love wave

The P-wave is indiscernible against the background microseismic noise. Nevertheless, it can be extracted by additional filtering, as shown in the next figure.
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LEHMAN SEISMOMETER HORIZONTAL RESPONSE TO SOLOMON ISLAND EARTHQUAKE UTC 2004/10/08 08:27:53 0.2 HP Filtered to Reveal P-wave

RELATIVE DISPLACEMENT

500

1000 TIME (SEC)

1500

2000

2500

Figure 2.

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LEHMAN SEISMOMETER HORIZONTAL RESPONSE TO SOLOMON ISLAND EARTHQUAKE UTC 2004/10/08 08:27:53

RELATIVE DISPLACEMENT
1300

1400

1500 TIME (SEC)

1600

1700

Figure 3.

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Waterfall FFT of Relative Displacement for Solomon Island Earthquake

Figure 4.

Again, the natural frequency of the seismometer is 0.07 Hz. The dominant spectral peak frequency tends to sweep slightly upward with respect to time.

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Phase Arrival Times from Solomon Islands to Mesa, Arizona The Mesa recording station (i.e. my home) has a latitude of 33.382 deg and a longitude of -111.866 deg. The earthquake source parameters are: DATE-(UTC)-TIME 2004/10/08 08:27:53 US: SOLOMON ISLANDS Expected 20s period surface wave amplitude 3.44E+01 m] [ 1.08E+01 m/s] Expected 1s period body wave amplitude 3.98E-01 m] [ 2.50E+00 m/s] LAT LON DEPTH MAG 10.99S 162.14E 37.5 6.8

The arrival time for the Solomon Island seismic waves to reach Mesa, Arizona are: delta (deg) 92.65 azimuth (degrees clockwise from north) eq-to-station station-to-eq 56.7 258.7 travel arrival time time(s) dy hr mn sec 787.78 0 8 41 0 788.30 0 8 41 1 799.50 0 8 41 12 804.04 0 8 41 17 1009.51 0 8 44 42 1075.90 0 8 45 48 1087.98 0 8 46 0 1092.44 0 8 46 5 1287.33 0 8 49 20 1417.87 0 8 51 30 1433.97 0 8 51 46 1435.08 0 8 51 48 1438.55 0 8 51 51 1449.62 0 8 52 2 1451.30 0 8 52 4 1464.97 0 8 52 17 1469.78 0 8 52 22 1521.46 0 8 53 14 1522.76 0 8 53 15 1526.52 0 8 53 19 1527.89 0 8 53 20 1816.55 0 8 58 9

# 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

code P PcP pP sP PP PKiKP pPKiKP sPKiKP SKiKP SKSac pSKSac SKKSac sSKSac S ScS pS sS SP SPn PS PnS PKKPdf

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23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35

PKKPbc SS SKKPdf PKKSdf SKKPbc PKKSbc SKKSdf SKKSac P'P'df S'S'df S'S'ac LQ LR

1818.78 1823.77 2027.91 2032.37 2034.93 2039.40 2243.55 2254.29 2310.39 3170.87 3172.55 2351.65 2610.00

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

8 8 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9

58 58 1 1 1 1 5 5 6 20 20 7 11

11 16 40 45 47 52 16 27 23 43 45 4 23

**************************************************

Characteristic Seismic Wave Periods Wave Type Body Surface Period (sec) 0.01 to 50 10 to 350 Natural Frequency (Hz) 0.02 to 100 0.003 to 0.1

Reference: Lay and Wallace, Modern Global Seismology

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Seismic Waveform Review by Tom Irvine

The primary wave, or P-wave, is a body wave that can propagate through the Earths core. This wave can also travel through water. The P-wave is also a sound wave. It thus has longitudinal motion. Note that the P-wave is the fastest of the four waveforms.

The secondary wave, or S-wave, is a shear wave. It is a type of body wave. The S-wave produces an amplitude disturbance that is at right angles to the direction of propagation. Note that water cannot withstand a shear force. S-waves thus do not propagate in water.

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Love waves are shearing horizontal waves. The motion of a Love wave is similar to the motion of a secondary wave except that Love wave only travel along the surface of the Earth. Love waves do not propagate in water.

Rayleigh waves travel along the surface of the Earth. Rayleigh waves produce retrograde elliptical motion. The ground motion is thus both horizontal and vertical. The motion of Rayleigh waves is similar to the motion of ocean waves except that ocean waves are prograde.

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A Quake! A Quake! By the Animaniacs

Yakko: It's a quiet, peaceful night The moon is shining bright Giving not a hint of what's in store A few hours before morning Without a single warning Something strange begins to move the floor A quake, a quake The house begins to shake You're bouncing 'cross the floor And watching all your dishes break You're sleeping; there's a quake You're instantly awake You're leaping out of bed And shouting "Oh for heaven's sake!" I ran outside with neighbors Their faces full of shocks That's because I'm standing there In nothing but my socks W+D : Oops! Yakko: A quake, a quake This must be a mistake Just feel the ground Go up and down Won't someone hit the brake? A quake, a quake Oh, what a mess they make The bricks, the walls The chimney falls Destruction in its wake I did not have insurance I called them from the scene And suddenly I'm listening To an answering machine Say "Too late, too late You shouldn't ought to wait 'Cause now you're stuck We wish you luck Here comes a six-point-eight!" Whose fault, whose fault? Blame it on the fault

'Cause Mister Richter Can't predict her Kicking our asphalt Seismologists all say Tectonic plates are in between An encroaching crustal mantle Yeah, so what the heck's that mean? It means a quake, a quake W+D : Oh really, yeah, no fake? We kind of had that feeling When the ground began to shake Yakko: And so we wait Resign ourselves to fate Because our lawn Is sitting on A continental plate We shivered through a blizzard Went swimming in a flood Then we blew off a hurricane And now we hear a thud Of a quake, a quake How much more can we take? We thought that we had seen it all But this one takes the cake The dirt, the rocks Those crazy aftershocks It's just the planet Moving granite Several city blocks *YW+D: Now the town is falling down * While the ground * Moves around * We won't let it get us down * Get beneath the door frame Yakko: A quake, a quake It's time to pull up stake Dot : The worst is over Y+W : We don't buy it We're fed up We can't deny it We just want some peace and quiet YW+D : So we're moving to Beirut! * - sung to "London Bridge" Transcribed by David Orozco

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