The Parkfield Project

By: Jeanine Mejares Christina Washington

Basic Earthquake Info• What causes an earthquake?

When plates move over, under or slide past each other 1. Transform2. Convergent3. Divergent

• Where do earthquakes commonly occur?Anywhere in the world- commonly along fault lines

What tools are used to measure an earthquake?

1) Richter scale- Amplitude of the largest seismic wave recorded.

2) Mercalli scale- Observations of people

Purpose of our Project

• Identify the characteristics (dates, locations, depths, magnitudes)

• Scientific reasoning

• Inspect recent seismicity

• Develop a 3-D visual demonstration organized according to time, location and depth

• Draw conclusions: What happened during and after the 2004 Parkfield earthquake?

What’s so Special about the Parkfield Earthquakes?

• The sequence of Parkfield earthquakes: 1857, 1881, 1901, 1922, 1934, and 1966

• The 2004 Parkfield earthquake, took place almost a decade later than was predicted

Parkfield Quakes

1845

1865

1885

1905

1925

1945

1965

1985

2005

0 2 4 6 8

Earthquake Number

Yea

r

Earthquakes

What is the Experiment?

• A research project led by the United States Geological Survey (USGS)

• Purpose: To discover a basis for earthquake prediction

Procedure• We researched past Parkfield

earthquakes

• Then we made a prediction of the next giant quake

• Next we graphed out earthquakes on a 3-D visualization software

• Afterwards we uploaded pictures of Parkfield from before and after the earthquake hit

• Finally, we drew conlusions to the main and minor problems of our project

3-D Colorwheel

Along The Way1990 Earthquake?

NO

How long?Approximately 14 years

Why?No definitive answer

Aftershocks?More than a week continuing

Parkfield 3-D Data

During and After

Video Clip

Conclusion• Pure logic and simple subtraction. With the continuing repetition of the Parkfield

Earthquakes, it was evident that an earthquake would occur in Parkfield in approxamitely 1990

• Scientific reasoning, again is a matter of logic and continuing patterns, scientists noticed a rucurring pattern

• During the 2004 Parkfield Earthquake, the San Andreas fault ruptured and created a 6.0 magnitude quake, leaving Parkfield with a month of aftershocks

Acknowledgments Pictures: http://search.msn.com/images/details.aspx?q=scientists+

+parkfield&color=both&size=1p&ht=286&wd=394&tht=92&twd=128&su=http%3a%2f%2fwww.geotimes.org

%2fsept02%2fWebExtra091802.html&iu=http%3a%2f%2fwww.geotimes.org%2fsept02%2fparkfield_people.jpg&tu=http

%3a%2f%2fimages.picsearch.com%2fis%3fhVRnqjT8nuE4YbwM8GbN4NyW5SsrAubpx3-gTUQ5sgw&sz=104

The Video Clip:USGS Website

History:http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/research/parkfield/index.html

And a special thanks to our teacher fellows:

Dr. Lederman

P. Benson Shing

Andreas Stavridis

Bridget Smith

Allison Jacobs

Jon Deck

THANK YOU!!!

When will the next Parkfield quake

occur?