Combine an early love of mathematics and the outdoors with a sense of adventure and what do you get? An Earth scientist. Seismologist Kaye Shedlock was a child who loved math and lived within easy reach of those scientific treasure troves, the Smithsonian Museums in Washington DC. This set the stage for her future specialty studying earthquakes. Join us to learn more about seismology the science of the temblor with Kaye Shedlock in this AudioExploration: Earthquake!
As an adult, Shedlock has spent her life gathering data to understand the movements of the puzzle pieces that form our Earth's tectonic plates, analyzing how their chafing and collisions can release energy in slow deformations or sudden, catastrophic breaks that we feel as earthquakes. Earning her bachelor's degree in mathematics (University of Maryland) and her master of science degree in Numerical Science (Johns Hopkins University) put Shedlock in a perfect position to apply that training to the mathematical brainteasers of seismology at MIT, where she earned her PhD in Geophysics.
For 25 years after that Shedlock devoted herself to solving seismological riddles for United States Geological Survey, serving as Chief of the Earthquake Hazards and Risk Branch in Golden, Colorado. Her USGS career involved collaboration on the national and international scene, including a post as the Western Hemisphere Coordinator of the Global Seismic Hazard Assessment Program, one of her favorites. This served as a stepping stone to the National Science Foundation (NSF), a return to her roots in Washington DC, first as Geophysics Program Director and then as Program Director for EarthScope. EarthScope is the NSF's 200 million dollar, five-year effort to construct a system of Earth observatories—thousands of instruments strong—that carpet North America. These instruments and the science program supporting them create a multidimensional picture of the Earth's movements, recording its every sigh and hiccup 24 hours a day, and are helping decipher the subtle signals that help us understand our planet's inner life. One day they may even teach us to predict The Big One.
Kaye Shedlock has published more than 75 peer-reviewed papers and created more than 120 presentations incuding our "Earthquake" and "Intraplate Earthquakes" articles.
September 30th, 2008 marks the installation date of the final permanent EarthScope instrument.
Segment 1:What is an earthquake? [Time 5:49]
The Earth's plates lock or grind past each other and strain accumulates. When it is released suddenly and violently we feel an earthquake, unless it is a slow earthquake. Kaye Shedlock describes these newly discovered phenomena, and the EarthScope system uncovering them.
Segment 2:Why do earthquakes occur where they do? [Time 5:44]
How were the Sichuan and California earthquakes of May and July 2008 different? Shedlock describes what crumpled tin foil and the Himalayas have in common.
Segment 3:What is EarthScope? [Time 6:55]
Shedlock describes this NSF seismology project that is taking a 4D catscan of the Earth's inner workings.
Segment 4: What's it like being a seismologist? [Time 5:22]
When putting in equipment for EarthScope things can get pretty exciting—and a little dangerous. Shedlock describes adventures in seismology as researchers encounter quaking fault lines, erupting volcanoes, and even grizzly bears.
Segment 5: How can you get involved in earthquake science? [Time 6:07]
EarthScope data, available online 24 hours a day, may be a sly way to get kids interested in science. Learn how schools can host a station and how Shedlock's childhood puzzles translated into a love of science.
Segment 6: What about The Big One? [Time 5:30]
Do we have a catastrophic earthquake to worry about in the near future? Find out Shedlock's best estimates and whether you should worry.
Credits: Interview with Kaye Shedlock for AccessScience "AudioExploration: Earthquakes" by Dorian Devins. Dorian's previous work includes the National Academy of Sciences InterViews project, WFMU's Speakeasy,and the Secret Science Club, an ongoing science lecture and arts series in Brooklyn, NY. Podcast production by Jessa Forte Netting. Sound engineering and editing by Neil Strachan of Tin Balloon Productions, New York, NY. Theme music by the Sacrosanct Wednesdays. Web design and construction by John Henriquez.
EarthScope Images
The EarthScope instrumentation includes GPS receivers (shown), seismometers, strainmeters along fault zones and magmatic centers, and campaign/flexible instruments. [Credit: NSF - EarthScope]
The Plate Boundary Observatory (PBO) component of EarthScope is a geodetic observatory designed to study the three-dimensional strain field resulting from deformation across the active boundary zone between the Pacific and North American plates in the western United States. [Credit: NSF - EarthScope]
The USArray component of EarthScope is a continental-scale seismic observatory designed to provide a foundation for integrated studies of continental lithosphere and deep Earth structure over a wide range of scales. [Credit: NSF - EarthScope]
Tsunami – How does an underwater earthquake cause a giant wave?
[Animation courtesy of AccessScience]
Continental Drift – The outer layer of the is made up of moving plates that move apart and collide over millions of years.
[Animation courtesy of AccessScience]
Next Big Quake by Jack Penland
(requires Flash Player 8)
It's been a hundred years since an earthquake destroyed San Francisco and scientists are still using that earthquake to better understand California's earthquakes. As this ScienCentral News video explains, it's a case of learning from the past to predict the future.
Elsewhere Shaketable Video Clips Creating earthquakes in a laboratory — watch what stays up and what falls down in these videos of full-size buildings subjected to seismic-level stresses on shaketables at Japan's Hyogo Earthquake Engineering Research Center. (Check out the Dai-Dai-Toku? project comparing two wooden houses.)
USGS Earthquake Animations These animations show the output from simulations of earthquake ruptures that were run on the supercomputers at Caltech's Center for Advanced Computing Research (Brad Aagaard, USGS - Pasadena, CA)
EarthScope An National Science Foundation earth science program to explore the structure and evolution of the North American continent and understand processes controlling earthquakes and volcanoes.
Southern California Earthquake Data Center Home
An easily-accessible, well-organized, high-quality, searchable archive of earthquake data for research in seismology and earthquake engineering.
Earthquake Engineering Research Center (EERC): UC Berkeley
Earthquake engineering information resources, including an open access archive, slides, images and photographs, selected full-text papers, related websites.
Earthquake Engineering Research Institute: Activities of the national society of engineers, geoscientists, architects, planners, public officials, and social scientists related to earthquake exposure .
The Civil Engineering Portal - Earthquake Engineering
California Universities for Research in Earthquake Engineering ... Earthquake Engineering Research Institute: news, reports, FAQ around the world.
![Kaye Shedlock [Credit: National Science Foundation/Stanford]](spotlight/earthquakes/shedlock_portrait.jpg)
Combine an early love of mathematics and the outdoors with a sense of adventure and what do you get? An Earth scientist. Seismologist Kaye Shedlock was a child who loved math and lived within easy reach of those scientific treasure troves, the Smithsonian Museums in Washington DC. This set the stage for her future specialty studying earthquakes. Join us to learn more about seismology the science of the temblor with Kaye Shedlock in this AudioExploration: Earthquake!
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