Clear some room in the basement, Tacoma. UW wants to install earthquake detectors there
Your basement or garage could become the next earthquake laboratory.
Researchers at the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network at the University of Washington are looking for citizen scientists to host seismic stations at their homes in the Tacoma area.
“Help us understand amplification of shaking in our backyard by hosting a seismic station for a few weeks,” the researchers say on their website.
The researchers are trying to understand how much the Puget Sound basin amplifies shaking from a large earthquake. They are also trying to produce an image of the Seattle Fault zone.
“Seattle and Tacoma both sit on top of large basins,” the researchers say. “Just like waves sloshing around in a bathtub back and forth, seismic waves can get trapped in a basin resulting in shaking much stronger than otherwise expected.”
Those basins extend as far as four miles below the surface.
“In our 3D simulations, we see these basins light up with strong shaking, but we need to verify that these basins are shaped the way we think they are,” said researcher Alex Hutko.
The scientists note they can’t blow up dynamite to study seismic waves. Instead, they’ll study the seismic noise around Tacoma and Seattle.
That noise is generated by trucks, trains and machinery.
By comparing information from multiple stations they can measure time lags of seismic waves and better understand the earth below the test sites.
The stations are about the size of a cooler and use less power than a light bulb. The stations would be installed for three to six weeks.
Hosts don’t have to worry about tiptoeing around their house or yard, researchers said.
“We tested it in our own basement and had it right by our washing machine, and with a newborn in the house we did a lot of laundry,” Hutko said. “But looking at the early data, it was surprising how much good data we got from just one week.”
The ideal site for the monitor is indoors and on concrete or a thin layer of flooring.
In the end, the research could establish if some areas are more prone to damage from shaking than others.
If you want to participate in the study, apply online at pnsn.org/about/seattle-tacoma-urban-experiment.
This story was originally published May 30, 2019 at 2:00 PM.
