The Science of Shuddering Earth
A look at the nascent field of seismology and why the earth moves beneath our feet.
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While earthquake tremors were once viewed as mere supernatural terrors, the last half-century has seen the birth of seismology. Earthquakes are now understood as elastic vibrations in the earth's crust, similar to the vibrations felt in a beam of iron when struck by a blow. These tremors travel at roughly three miles per second. Whether triggered by volcanic activity, the creation of mountain ranges, or the sudden relief of stresses in rock, these movements remain impossible to predict. The recent American earthquake that devastated Charleston and destroyed 100 lives six years ago served to double our scientific understanding of these occurrences. By studying these vibrations, we are beginning to ascertain why they occur and how their effects might be minimized.
“Every object on the earth's surface... has a certain vibration period depending on its size, form, elasticity and other conditions.”
This 1893 analysis of seismology highlights the ongoing struggle to understand the Cascadia Subduction Zone. While we have replaced the primitive seismoscopes described here with advanced digital monitoring, the fundamental, unpredictable reality of living on a seismically active fault line remains the same for modern Seattle.
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