CMU seismograph detects earthquake

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A series of powerful earthquakes shook the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido last Thursday.

The first earthquake began about 3:50 p.m.

At the same time, the CMU Geology Department’s seismometer began picking
up ripple waves of the Hokkaido quake that registered 8.0 on the Richter
scale.

The seismometers display screen is set up in a display box across the hall from the geology department’s Brooks 305 offices.

Department Chairman David Matty said the seismic readings taken Thursday afternoon are on display with the machine.

Matty, who oversees the machines operation, said the seismograph has been in use for more than two years.

The machine on display in Brooks is not the only component to the detecting
of seismographic movement throughout the earth at CMU.

Matty said the actual detection device is located in a well 200 feet below
ground level and can pick up vibrations from even the smallest earthquakes.

“Our instrument is still sensitive to detect them,” Matty said. “Even from as far away as the other side of the world.”

The ability for the machine to detect an earthquake clear across the world
requires a large magnitude, said Mona Sirbescu, assistant professor of geology.

“It depends on the energy the earthquake gives off,” Sirbescu said.

She said the earthquakes in that part of the world are, in part, because of plate tectonics.

The Pacific and Japan plates continue to move in opposing direction, she said.

“These plates slide slowly five centimeters per year,” she said.