Partner Spotlight – University of Utah Seismograph Stations

University of Utah Seismograph Stations – UUSS

Reducing the risk from earthquakes in Utah through research, education, and public service.

The University of Utah Seismograph Stations (UUSS) maintains and operates a combined urban and regional seismic network throughout the State of Utah and a regional seismic network in Yellowstone National Park. UUSS monitors seismicity in these regions by providing earthquake locations and magnitudes. The monitoring in Utah is part of a state-federal partnership with the U. S. Geological Survey Advanced National Seismic System. Monitoring in Yellowstone is done as part of the U. S. Geological Survey Yellowstone Volcano Observatory.

In addition to regional monitoring, UUSS is building, maintaining, and operating a seismic network local to Utah FORGE. The primary goal of this network is seismic hazard monitoring. The complete network will consist of six stations located on the surface in carefully designed vaults, six stations in shallow boreholes, one deeper borehole, and three accelerometers located close to structures. Data from these instruments are sent back to UUSS in real-time. Once all stations are installed, over 2 GB of data will be collected and processed each day.

This data feeds into an automatic processing system that detects and locates earthquakes. For larger earthquakes, maps of ground shaking are generated, and alarms are sent for rapid review to seismologists who are on call 24 hours a day. All earthquakes are reviewed by seismic analysts and posted to the web.

To complement the local network, UUSS has deployed dense arrays of temporary geophones at times of stimulation to help better constrain the background seismicity and seismic velocity structure. The data from these deployments contributes to special studies. In one study, UUSS mapped the shallow shear-wave velocity structure of Utah FORGE and the surrounding area, and in another study, new algorithms were developed for detecting very small magnitude events from the stimulation process.

Find out more about other Utah FORGE team and partners HERE