Preserving Ohio’s Historic Seismogram Collection: 83 Years of Global Seismology: 1909 – 1992

Date: 4/26/2019

Time: 02:00 PM

Room: Pike

The Ohio Geological Survey (OGS) is the current proprietor of eighty-three years' worth of analog seismic records of the Jesuit Seismological Association, recorded at the John Carroll University (JCU) near Cleveland Ohio. The collection contains records from the 80-kg Wiechert seismograph spanning the years 1909 to 1947. JCU then installed two long-period horizontal and one short-period vertical Sprengnether instruments. The Sprengnether instrument records contain traces from July 1947 to 1986. In 1986 a multi-station network of short-period L4 seismometers were used until the end of operations in 1992. The Ohio Seismic Network saved these paper recordings from destruction and has housed them at the H.R. Collins Laboratory in Delaware, OH since 1999. Recent preservation grants have been obtained by OGS through which the archiving, detailed cataloging and preservation work has begun. Phase-I was completed in mid-2018 and it is anticipated that two more phases will be required to complete the project. Over 100,000 seismograms are currently in the inventory and are nearly complete. The records have not been inventoried in detail but appear to be continuous from the early 1920’s through 1931. From 1931 – 1936 JCU was in the process of moving locations, so no records exist during this time. Work has begun listing the significant global, regional and local earthquakes contained in the collection, which are recognized in the traces. Digital scanning has begun on select seismograms and the entire collection is available in-person to interested researchers. This presentation covers the history, current inventory, progress and plans for this rare collection.

Presenting Author: Jeff Fox

Authors