GEO 104 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Seismometer, Seismic Wave, California Institute Of Technology

• School: Stony Brook University
• Department: Geosciences
• Course: GEO 104
• Professor: Joel Hurowitz

Document Summary

Seismometers: they are used for measuring earthquake"s magnitude. Squiggles are made to show the magnitude of the earthquake. The bigger the squiggle, the great the magnitude of the earthquake. Earthquake size is determined based on the signal a seismometer receives. If the seismometer receives a big signal, the seismometer will record the earthquake having a great magnitude. Seismometer recordings depend on certain factors: distance from earthquake, local geology -> how well does the bedrock under your feet transmit seismic energy, type of seismic wave. 20th century caltech professor developed method for estimating earthquake size from seismic data. He gured out a way to measure the peak of motion recorded on a seismometer as a function of distance away from where the earthquake took place. He was able to estimate the earthquake size by the distance from the earthquake and measuring the maximum earthquake motion recorded by the seismometer.