Forensic Seismology or What Was that Noise?

A foot fall in the Sonoran desert, waves crashing on a beach 700 kilometers away, strong winds swaying clock towers and sky scrapers, trucks bouncing down a dirt road, an explosion 5000 kilometers away… What do these have in common? Each can be detected by measuring the energy they transfer as sound waves into the solid Earth. One can locate smugglers, predict weather, and deduce who is playing with bombs by using these sound or seismic waves. Sensitive instruments called seismometers can pick up these forms of Earth “noise”. Most seismologists, scientists who use the data from seismometers to understand the origin of these vibrations, focus on earthquakes. But, a growing number now focus on monitoring and documenting human behavior and human caused events, a field called forensic seismology, and Cafe Scientifique explores this topic on October 22 at the Complex. Click here for more information.