SEISMIC WAVE MOVIES: CREATING SEISMIC WAVEFIELD VISUALIZATIONS WITH DATA FROM EARTHSCOPE'S TRANSPORTABLE ARRAY

Large-scale seismic wave propagation can be directly visualized by animating the data recorded by the Transportable Array (TA) component of EarthScope’s USArray. The TA is a network of over 400 seismic stations, presently located in the mid-western United States, with approximately 70 km spacing between stations. Highly coherent seismic energy propagating across the continent may be visualized by graphically representing the time evolution of the actual ground motion recorded by the individual TA stations. The resultant “movies” provide a tool for education, outreach, and research. For outreach purposes the visualizations provide an engaging and attention-grabbing demonstration of waves propagating in the solid Earth and illustrate how sensitive seismic instruments detect even distant earthquakes. As an educational tool the visualizations illustrate wave propagation, including variations in wave speed and period, and demonstrate how individual seismic stations sample large-scale phenomena. As a research tool the visualizations can be used to identify wave propagation effects associated with heterogeneous Earth structure.

We will provide examples of visualizations utilizing TA data but with different outreach, education, and research objectives. We will discuss the challenges of creating visualizations aimed at education and outreach audiences that are engaging but accurately convey the underlying scientific concepts. In addition, we will present and discuss samples of tutorial visualizations that can provide non-specialist educators and interpretive specialists with a deeper level of understanding of wave propagation effects.