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Articles — ESS Earth Sciences

Articles · written by the people in the field

Field notes from five decades of measuring the earth.

Installation stories, instrument guides and news from the divisions — written by the engineers, seismologists and technicians who do the work, not by a marketing department.

Featured

Assessing Earthquake Hazard

GuideSRCAssessing Earthquake HazardEvery major infrastructure project needs to consider potential site-specific hazards: e.g. landslides for roads; the environmental impact of power generation facilities; wind loading for buildings. Earthquakes are a hazard for these and many other assets including dams, nuclear power stations, resource pipelines and critical data centres.6 min readRead the story

100 articles

The WA Array Project

Field storySRCThe WA Array ProjectThe SRC has been fortunate enough to be involved in a landmark earth science project in Western Australia, as a supplier of some of the seismographs used in the project, and in assisting with one phase of the deployment of over 150 seismic stations.4 min read

Earthquake Recording Instrumentation for Buildings

NewsEarthquake Recording Instrumentation for BuildingsThe science of structural response to earthquakes is about to get a massive data resource boost due to a mandate introduced in the Philippines for seismic …3 min read

Seismology Shop

NewsSRCSeismology ShopIt’s the SRC’s 50th anniversary, and we’ve made a retro Seismology t-shirt to celebrate. Get one in our online store today.1 min read

History of Australian Earthquakes

NewsSRCHistory of Australian EarthquakesWe’ve compiled a short series of clips highlighting a few interesting earthquake facts for each Australian state and territory into a single video.1 min read

Dynamic Analysis of a Dam using Strong Motion Accelerograph Data

GuideSRCDynamic Analysis of a Dam using Strong Motion Accelerograph DataAs part of the operation of the Victorian Water Industry seismic network, the Seismology Research Centre recently installed triaxial strong motion accelerographs (SMA) on Glenmaggie Dam.5 min read

The Geophone – How We Listen To The Earth

NewsThe Geophone – How We Listen To The EarthA geophone is a fundamental tool of geoscientists who want to see (or, more accurately, hear) what is happening underground. Like a stethoscope, geophones listen …5 min read

Earthquake Alarm Service for Victoria

NewsSRCEarthquake Alarm Service for VictoriaVictoria is one of the most uniformly monitored states in Australia for earthquake activity, growing from a small research project run by the Preston Institute of Technology to a network with statewide earthquake alarm capabilities.3 min read

PLT-10 Point Load Tester – Video

NewsPLT-10 Point Load Tester – VideoThe PLT-10 is an Australian-made point load tester designed for continuous use. It is small enough to be portable but heavy enough to be stable. …2 min read

SRC earthquake data live on YouTube

NewsSRCSRC earthquake data live on YouTubeThe SRC is now streaming live earthquake data to our YouTube channel. The selection of stations covers southeast Australia, so if you’re in the region and there’s been something large enough to feel, you should be able to see it on some nearby stations. Each line shows the last hour…2 min read

Two years on from Victoria’s largest earthquake

NewsSRCTwo years on from Victoria’s largest earthquakeTwo years ago today, at 9:15 am, a few million people in southeast Australia felt an earthquake, many for the first time in their lives. Let’s cover some of the more interesting points about this earthquake. Despite being felt by millions of people, only about 43,000 reported what they experienced…4 min read

GroundView Borehole Cameras

NewsGeosystemsGroundView Borehole CamerasCheck out our new range of affordable high resolution waterproof borehole cameras.1 min read

Magnitude 4.0 Earthquake in Melbourne’s North

NewsSRCMagnitude 4.0 Earthquake in Melbourne’s NorthThe magnitude 4.0 earthquake on 28 May 2023 at 11:41pm, whose epicentre was located near the outer northern Melbourne suburb of Craigieburn, was recorded on dozens of seismometers and accelerometers across the state, providing a plethora of data for seismologists to analyse how ground motion changes over distance.4 min read

Human Activity Can Trigger Earthquakes

NewsSRCHuman Activity Can Trigger EarthquakesEarthquakes occur when stress build-up in the earth’s crust exceeds the strength of the rock, but tectonic plate motion isn’t the only source of stress. We can change rock stress and trigger earthquakes to occur sooner than they may have otherwise.4 min read

Faults: Normal, Reverse, or Strike-Slip?

GuideSRCFaults: Normal, Reverse, or Strike-Slip?What are faults, what do the different types of fault mean, and what has that got to do with the SRC logo?2 min read

Locating the Origin of an Earthquake

GuideSRCLocating the Origin of an EarthquakeWhen you feel the earth shaking, it might feel like the earthquake is right under you, but it’s likely that the earthquake started dozens of kilometres away.3 min read

Negative Magnitude Earthquakes

GuideSRCNegative Magnitude EarthquakesHow can an earthquake have a negative magnitude? It’s got to do with ground motion and distance, and how sensitive seismographs have become.2 min read

Hazelwood North CFA get their PAWS dirty

Field storyWeathertechHazelwood North CFA get their PAWS dirtyESS were welcomed warmly to the Gippsland CFA Brigade of Hazelwood North to train and guide the team on how to use their new Portable Automated Weather Systems (PAWS) and 10m wind speed and direction…2 min read

SeedLink & Seismic Data Streams

NewsSRCSeedLink & Seismic Data StreamsWhat is SeedLink, and how can you share your seismograph data with the world using it?3 min read

What Are Staff Gauges?

NewsWhat Are Staff Gauges?Staff gauges (Staff Gages in the USA) look like oversized rulers, that are permanently installed in a body of water. They provide a quick visual …4 min read

Get to know the SRC: Adam Pascale

NewsSRCGet to know the SRC: Adam PascaleMeet the SRC’s Chief Scientist who celebrates 30 years at SRC in 2021. You can find Adam as SeisLOLogist on BlueSky, Instagram, and TikTok7 min read

Largest Earthquake in Victoria’s history

NewsSRCLargest Earthquake in Victoria’s historyThe magnitude MLv5.8 (Mw5.9) earthquake on 22 September 2021 at 9:15am local time was the largest to occur in the state of Victoria since record-keeping began around 200 years ago. The epicentre of the earthquake was located 127km from our office in Melbourne, and was recorded on an old digital…7 min read

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