Seismic Stations in Iowa and across the US

Oct 13, 2010

Another name for the Topic could be “This Earth is Shaking”.

EarthScope: The Magnetotelluric Transportable Array Moves into Iowa

Dr. Raymond Anderson

Iowa Geological and Water Survey

EarthScope is a National Science Foundation sponsored program to explore the 4-dimensional structure of the North American continent through the installation of multi-purpose arrays of instruments and observatories.  Major EarthScope projects include the Plate Boundary Observatory, the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth, and the USArray.  One component of the USArray is the Magnetotelluric Transportable (MT) Array, which consists of two portable arrays of 200 seismometers each that are being deployed in north-south strips about 200 miles wide that span the nation.  Starting on the west coast, stations in each strip will record world-wide earthquakes and other seismic signals for 2 years before being moved eastward.  The program will image the entire continental US between 2004 and 2014, and this year the MT Array is moving into Iowa.  In this presentation Dr. Anderson will discuss the EarthScope program and how the MT Array will be used to understand the deep structure of Iowa and North America.

Dr. Raymond Anderson

Dr. Anderson (Senior Research Geologist-State of Iowa) will be talking to us about “Earthscope” – which is a program to install hundreds of Seismic Stations across the US to collect information to better understand the earth’s deep structure.  Iowa will have 32 stations – about half are already installed.  In Iowa, Dr. Anderson is a recognized Seismic Authority.