Living on a Restless Planet

This exhibit area focuses on the technologies used to study and monitor movement of the Earth's crust, with particular emphasis on Bay Area earthquakes. Use real seismographic equipment such as creep meters and strain gauges in your own experiments.

Earthquake Platform

Stand on an authentic research shake platform to experience and compare different magnitude and motion earthquakes. Real data from recent quakes around the world are fed into a computer program that is connected to the shake platform. Can you build a foam block structure that withstands the quake?

Make It, Shake It Computer

At this computer station, define parameters of a building such as height and materials, and then subject the building to familiar historic earthquakes. See how the different structures hold-up.

Make It, Shake It Lab

Experiment with how adding braces to buildings reinforces structural integrity. Reinforcements lessen the quake's effect by making the building less flexible. Adjust the quake intensity controls, a building may respond with some parts staying still while others move. This is called resonance. Add braces to the front of the building. Crossbraces help support the building so it won't shake as much. Watch the monitor to see how braces help. The monitor shows the shaking of the table and the building. Compare the line before and after you add the braces.

Quake Watch

The ground near an active fault is constantly being stretched and compressed. The earth moves and builds up pressure along the fault. Every now and then the plates slip and there's an earthquake. Scientists use many kinds of physical and chemical sensors to keep tabs on faults. Spread out across a wide area, the sensors provide a detailed picture of the earth's shifting crust.

Utilize an on-line US Geological Survey program that is updated every few minutes to research recent earthquakes. Shown on a digital map, epicenters and magnitudes are listed. Other programs show how seismic waves move through and around the globe.

Seismometers

Jump, stomp, or tap your feet. You've just started vibrations moving through the concrete, much like an earthquake does. Seismometers measure how far and how fast the ground moves when it shakes. As technology has improved, so have the tools that sense earthquakes. The first known earthquake detector was made in China nearly 2,000 years ago. Ancient Chinese seismometers used levers and balls. In 1831, Michael Faraday discovered that he could make an electric current by moving a magnet inside a coil of wire. Today, it forms the basis of the most common kind of seismometer, the Electromagnetic seismometer. The most recently developed seismometer is the Microchip seismometer. It consists of several small sheets of silicon pressed together.

Try a real seismometer by pressing down on the handle to see how the magnet and coil move relative to each other and how this action generates an electric current.

Sensing Earthquakes

Taking continuous readings with a variety of instruments, geologists monitor compression and displacement of the Earth's crust along fault lines. They hope to use this information to help predict earthquakes. The instruments are so sensitive that they can measure changes in size of just a few angstroms. Using real and analog versions of the instruments, learn what each measures and how it works. Squeeze a granite block: a strainmeter shows how much shorter the block becomes! Push an adjacent granite block and a creepmeter measures the shift between the two blocks. Stand on another block and a tiltmeter senses the tilt as you lean side to side.