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| The San Andreas Fault is the diagonal line running from Bodega Bay (upper left), through Tomales Bay (in the middle) and down to Bolinas (lower right). And then it continues on down to pass just a few miles west of my house in Palo Alto. |
THERE'S been a lot of discussion recently about the (apparently) growing number of earthquakes in Oklahoma. There's suspicion about deep waste wells, or maybe it's the fracking, or maybe it's just that time of year.
In California, you'll often hear people talking about "earthquake weather." I don't think it's a real thing, but just something people say. The last big earthquake I lived through was in October of 1989. It was classic "earthquake weather," hot and dry.
Since there's this really big fault zone near my house, I consider these kinds of questions from time to time.
So this got me to thinking about earthquakes and whether or not there actually IS any kind of seasonality to them. And, by the way, is Oklahoma (or any particular region) actually having more earthquakes now than just a few years ago? So this is today's Search Challenge...
1. Can you find data about when and where earthquakes happen and then chart it so we can see location and number over time? Ideally, you would create (or find) a chart showing number of earthquakes by US state over the past 10 years. Even better, if that chart could show month-by-month, then we should be able to spot both any seasonality effects AND resolve the question about Oklahoma.
Note that I have not yet created this chart, so I don't know how easy it will be. (But I'll start working on it today.)
NEWS FLASH: Regular readers of SearchResearch probably recall the Challenge we had in April about Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and the Rosetta Lander. You might be interested to know the satellite just went into near-comet orbit successfully. (See the New York Times article on the rendezvous, which includes some fantastic video of the comet.) The Philae probe will be launched sometime in November. Stay tuned!
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| Twitter pic posted by ESA for the Rosetta team. Closeup of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. |
Good day, Dr. Russell, fellow SearchResearchers
ReplyDeleteSearched:
Because here in Mexico we have earthquakes frequently. I have in Chrome USGS there searched for maps. They have incredible information about earthquakes around world.
Earthquake Facts and Statistics
Seismicity of the United States
The data we are looking for is in this site. I just get oops when trying to get them. File not found
[Historic Earthquakes in the United States ]
[google maps earthquakes]
[earthquakes USA States] in research.google.com
[earthquakes usa states 2013] in resarch.google.com
EARTHQUAKES:
10% of U.S. earthquakes are in Okla. Is drilling to blame? Date december 2, 2013.source a
Answer
1. Can you find data about when and where earthquakes happen and then chart it so we can see location and number over time?
Top Earthquake States. 1974 to 2003 According to U.S. Geological Survey data in source a (10%of U.S. earthquakes...) since the beginning of 2009 10% if earthquakes are in Oklahoma.
California 1486 Earthquakes M3 or bigger... 60 %
Oklahoma 240 10%
Nevada 196 8%
Wyoming 95 4%
Arkansas 65 3%
Are Earthquakes Really on the Increase?...According to long-term records (since about 1900), we expect about 17 major earthquakes (7.0 - 7.9) and one great earthquake (8.0 or above) in any given year.
I'll search for the current data.
I haven't succeeded with the main challenge yet, but since I may not have time to return to it, here's where I've got to:
ReplyDeleteI started with a search for 'earthquake data download usgs'
Checked out http://earthquake.usgs.gov/monitoring/deformation/data/download/ but was strain meter data, and I want just earthquakes.
Scanned down results, found guide at http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/intro/activities/25080.html
Page mentions "The USGS Earthquake Hazards Program web site allows you to download earthquake data as an Excel spreadsheet from any area in the world over a specific time period and magnitude range.". No link, but gave me a phrase to search for.
I went back to the results page, and something with that name was already listed as http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/search/
The page is a search form, so I set it to 10 years duration, with a lat/lon bounding box around the continental US (via 'us lat lon bounding box' http://www.quora.com/Geography/What-is-the-longitude-and-latitude-of-a-bounding-box-around-the-continental-United-States).
The results came back, but there was no state information, even in the GeoJSON format.
I then tried searching for 'us earthquakes information by state', top result was http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/states/
Clicked on http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/states/alabama/history.php, and got a 404.
Back to results, second link mentions 'by date, state' in snippet.
Top Earthquake states map looks interesting, but link 404s too.
'"top earthquake states" site:earthquakes.usgs.gov' didn't find it, but I double-checked and got the plural in the URL wrong, it should be 'earthquake' not 'earthquakes'!
'"top earthquake states" site:earthquake.usgs.gov' gave results!
Found a table from 1974 to 2014, copied data into a Google Spreadsheet, added "State" and "Value" headers to help my mapping program interpret it. Shared it and 'Published to Web" to make it available: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OolLW9NYyNPsQZlke7BaUetu_ZZ8z-nisdWByLb8DtU/edit?usp=sharing
I then uploaded it to a free site I maintain, OpenHeatMap, and it gave this map: http://www.openheatmap.com/view.html?map=AcidophilousTetraonidCapitalists
This doesn't answer the main question, but it was a good sanity check, I wanted to understand how earthquakes were distributed and it looks like Alaska, California, and Hawaii will completely dominate the results.
I did a little bit more work, but kept hitting 404's on the site, hopefully I'll get a chance to return and do a bit more:
So far I have searched using Fusion Tables {Query} [earthquakes usa] & my SERP http://goo.gl/gFAIJR with the first result providing a limited list of earthquakes from 1700 up to date. I exported this data, then filtered results to get 2003 to 2014. As well I created additional columns to specify month and year. Others columns were hidden as they aren’t needed for chart. I included the magnitude of earthquakes only to indicate that these earthquakes exceed 3.8.
ReplyDeleteI then tried creating a chart but to no avail. I cleaned up the dates in hopes that by isolating the month & year I could then show a scattered chart proving or disproving the seasonality factor of earthquakes. My idea was to use month & year on the axises then color code the states & provide a legend of the states. Here’s what I have so far…
http://goo.gl/A03ZpE (not sure if this will link properly so here’s full url if needed) https://www.google.com/fusiontables/DataSource?docid=1iDe97PxQm4De3GLMgzqe3Koh6wBt19MviBdo8vv5#rows:id=17
I have searched for existing charts but nothing so far. I will continue.
I checked out the website USGS Earthquake [EQ Archives]- you should see my search options utilized http://goo.gl/1FEk3y and here’s the map http://goo.gl/O4aTfY using a filter to limit search to USA.
ReplyDeleteI used Google Maps to obtain bounding box for coordinates around the USA. I selected “map & list” option.Then from there I downloaded data in CSV format and opened a new Fusion Table.
Result is 1300+ earthquakes from 2003 to 2014. The Place column showing the individual states will require a lot of data cleaning. Other columns can easily be filtered. Have a look. There may be an easy way to clean up the data but I haven’t attempted it yet. The result is raw data which I am sharing. Maybe someone knows a quick way to data clean (1300+ results otherwise) http://goo.gl/7OBdft I will continue. I will check my links here once posted to be sure they all work.
In the interest of how one could create a chart I have one that’s crude and it’s based on the small sampling from my first source posted i.e. Wikipedia. These are 24 notable earthquakes over the 10 years. The result is the sampling is too small to suggest seasonality to earthquakes. I could clean the data of the 1300+ earthquakes and do a similar chart or I could to take the small sampling and increase the sampling by doing a worldwide chart from unfiltered data. I imported the essential data from [http://goo.gl/A03ZpE] into GoogleSheets because it has a bit more flexibility. Here’s the result I got http://goo.gl/dQSf9v . It gives the 10 year range spread by month & details across the top and right legend. This is one way we can get the answer I believe.
DeleteHere's an up to date on the increase in Oklahoma's earthquakes. In 2014 Oklahoma now is ahead of California. Fracking has been identified as a possibility. http://goo.gl/8kiLso
DeleteI am not having problems with posting. One observation I have is that when the "recaptcha" image first appears, by the time I go to enter the numbers, that number has changed. If I accidentally put the first number in, it tells me I've entered the wrong number. Other than that I hit publish & no problem on Chrome O/S.
A method that could work to clean the data & provide just the physical location such as “state” would be to use a “batch reverse geocode” or you can write some code. I gave it a go at one website I found [Batch Reversing Geocode] http://goo.gl/OPzPkk By importing a partial list of the 1300+ results using latitude & longitude I was able to run a batch but it was not a complete success. The concept as a method to clean the data in order to create a chart is doable. If this was quick and easy I would complete the process.
DeleteAnother key aspect of this challenge was to figure out what chart would best show data. I discovered that Fusion Tables is limited when it came to gathering this type of data. However Google Sheets will examine your data and it will automatically choose a chart based on your data. In this case a Trend Chart which gives data over a specified time period as we needed.
Of course easiest is to find an existing chart but as others have said USGS is not compiling the data but rather providing the tools to create your own. It does allow downloading & in all likelihood this was the best idea because experience may have shown everyone’s problem is unique. In our case we can’t zero in sufficiently to answer the main question regarding the seasonality factor. For this it looks like creating your own chart is the best choice.
I don't know what happened to my first post. Maybe other post got lost too. Here comes again.
ReplyDeleteGood day, Dr. Russell, fellow SearchResearchers
Searched:
Because here in Mexico we have eartquakes frequently. I have in Chrome
USGS there searched for maps. They have incredible information about eartquakes around world.
Earthquake Facts and Statistics
Seismicity of the United States
The data we are looking for is in this site. I just get oops when trying to get them.
File not found
[Historic Earthquakes in the United States ]
[google maps earthquakes]
[earthquakes USA States] in research.google.com
[earthquakes usa states 2013] in resarch.google.com
EARTHQUAKES:
10% of U.S. earthquakes are in Okla. Is drilling to blame? Date december 2, 2013.source a
Answer
1. Can you find data about when and where earthquakes happen and then chart it so we can see location and number over time?
Top Earthquake States. 1974 to 2003
According to U.S. Geological Survey data in source a (10%of U.S. earthquakes...) since the beginning of 2009 10% if earthquakes are in Oklahoma.
California 1486 Earthquakes M3 or bigger... 60 %
Oklahoma 240 10%
Nevada 196 8%
Wyoming 95 4%
Arkansas 65 3%
Are Earthquakes Really on the Increase?...According to long-term records (since about 1900), we expect about 17 major earthquakes (7.0 - 7.9) and one great earthquake (8.0 or above) in any given year.
I'll search for the current data.
I am going make and arbitrary starting point of magnitude equal or greater than 3.
ReplyDeleteUSGS records Man-made Earthquakes Update
http://www.usgs.gov/blogs/features/usgs_top_story/man-made-earthquakes/
A nice chart here: Earthquakes with magnitude >3 in the U.S. midcontinent, 1967–2012. After decades of a steady earthquake rate (average of 21 events/year), activity increased starting in 2001 and peaked at 188 earthquakes in 2011
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/341/6142/1225942
and
http://www.usgs.gov/blogs/features/usgs_top_story/man-made-earthquakes/
Sharp increase in central Oklahoma seismicity since 2008 induced by massive wastewater injection. Full article in Science available but I used the abstract here...." high-production states in the United States, such as Oklahoma, face sharply rising numbers of earthquakes"..."tracks earthquakes to distances of 35 kilometers from high-rate disposal wells in Oklahoma" Published Online July 3 2014
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/345/6195/448.abstract
This has a delightful animation map of all OK quakes, 4,000+ from Jan 2008 -June 2014
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/ceus/products/OKeqanimation.php
Earthquake/weather debunked
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/topics/megaqk_facts_fantasy.php
The Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast: lots of data and excel sheets
http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2007/1437/
THis site has all EQ info for every state in various charting formats; exactly as required for this project.
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/states/
I started by searching to [ earthquakes weather correlation ] just because I was curious. Surprised to see there is a Wikipedia page for it. I thought they might have something already linked showing a correlation. And of course I saw this under scientific validity "Earthquakes occur in all types of weather, in all climate zones, in all seasons of the year, and at any time of day."
ReplyDeleteI didn't want to head right over to USGS, and instead did a search for [ earthquakes history timeline ] checking both Web and Image search. Most of the graphs pointed back to usgs.gov.
Searched [ earthquakes history filetype:csv ] and most the results were very specific.
I gave in and headed to usgs.gov. Clicked around a lot and finally took this path beginning at
Earthquakes to
Link low on the page Significant Earthquake Archive to
Info by Region (left navigation) to
Select a Country/Region > United States to
General Information > Earthquake Statistics to
Online Earthquake Catalog
I change the start date to 1800-07-31 and the output to CSV file and got Earthquakes 1800-present
Now I just need to figure out how to convert or pull out months
I just realized an error in my ways that I'll need to go back and generate a new file based on northern and southern hemispheres due to axis rotation. Oh well.
In Wellington, overcast, still and muggy days are known as 'earthquake weather'. You may be interested in the thoughts of Ken Ring, a Kiwi who claims to be able to predict earthquakes according to the position of the Moon, tides and seasons. He's very controversial here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Ring_(writer)
ReplyDeletePam
Wellington, New Zealand
In case you haven't heard, Hawaii had a minor earthquake today M
ReplyDelete4.5 Earthquake as well has Tropical Storm Iselle and coming up Hurricane Julio.
Somewhat interesting if you read the Wikipedia link in my previous comment about Earthquake Weather.
"At the 2011 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, Shimon Wdowinski announced an apparent temporal connection between tropical cyclones and earthquakes."