USArray - A Continent-Wide Seismic Observatory Across America

A continent-wide seismic observatory called USArray is marching its way across America beginning in California to provide scientists with earthquake data to study active tectonics and deep earth structure across the continent. The transportable telemetered array of 400 unmanned broadband seismometers are arranged in a grid with an approximate 70 km station spacing. The data are transmitted in real time through the USArray Network Facility at the Institute for Geophysics and Planetary Physics (IGPP) at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. This movie shows how the USArray seismometers will be moved eastward every two years to eventually cover the entire the United States. Permanent stations (yellow triangles above) will also be emplaced. The program has currently covered the state of California and much of Oregon and Washington. More than a Gigabyte of data are recorded everyday from 100 stations and viewed on a tiled, 50-megapixel display at IGPP. You can view the 100 most recently recorded earthquakes from the array on the ANF website and find information for downloading data for research through the EarthScope website. Need a thesis topic? There will be more than enough data from this program to keep seismologists busy for years.