SEATTLE — It will be a busy weekend for a team of Harvard Ph.D. students trying to learn more about the Seattle earthquake fault zone.
The team will spend their weekend installing seismometers at the homes of volunteers around Seattle who agreed to have seismic activity recorded on their property.
The project is called “Seaquake” and was planned before an earthquake shook western Washington early Friday morning. Although that quake did not hit along the Seattle fault line, it gives added importance to the reason they are doing this work.
“The reason I care about earthquakes is because of the communities they affect,” Natasha Toghramadjian explained.
The team trained with the equipment Friday and then started installing a few monitors, taking time to explain how they work to curious homeowners and neighbors.
The Hahn family agreed to have one in their side yard and said they all missed the earthquake that morning.
“We didn't feel the quake, hopefully, that's a little more sensitive in our yard,” Dad Jason Hahn joked. He was grateful for the chance to share
In one month, they'll return to dig up the meters and see what data they collected. Researchers said predicting earthquakes is unlikely but it might give them other important information about earthquakes in the Seattle area.