Earthquake Museum Display to be Seen by 5 Million People

Over the next four years, the museum exhibit "Earth in Motion" will travel to six of the largest science museums across the country and be viewed by more than 5 million people. The display, featured at the IRIS workshop in Breckenridge, was developed cooperatively by the USGS Albuquerque Seismological Laboratory (USGS/ASL), the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, and IRIS. The display has been requested by the Franklin Institute Science Museum in Philadelphia for inclusion in their touring exhibit known as "Powers of Nature". Special funding has been provided by the National Science Foundation to support the display.

The display got its start in 1990 when Bob Hutt of ASL approached the NM Museum about the possibility of loaning them some used seismic equipment in order to help create a museum display that would inform the public about seismology and current earthquakes. The display would complement an existing "Pulsing Earth" exhibit, a 20'x 30' fiber optic relief map of the earth which displays ocean plates, continents, continental shelves, and illuminates an 8-day historical record of seismic activity around the world. The first step in setting up the equipment was the installation of an antenna at the Museum to provide a radio link from a seismometer located deep down a quiet borehole at the Albuquerque Seismic Lab. This would allow recording of seismic activity of magnitude 4.5 or greater nearly anywhere in the world. Shortly thereafter the Museum put together a planning team of staff and volunteers to develop the content of the exhibit, write text and determine graphic needs. Next, the drum recorders and seismometer were installed, text panel mock-ups produced, and a lengthy evaluation period began which relied heavily on visitor input. In 1992 the exhibit was produced, opened to rave reviews, and continues to be one of the Museum's most popular exhibits.

The exhibit attempts to teach visitors about why earthquakes happen, where they're most likely to occur, how earthquakes are measured, what kind of damage they can do, and that New Mexico does indeed experience earthquakes. The inclusion of a working seismograph in the display gives visitors a hands-on approach to seismology: Visitors walking into the atrium of the Museum are frequently greeted by dozens of kids excitedly jumping up and down on the floor. First impression suggests a school field trip gone awry, but closer examination reveals that these enthusiastic youngsters are actually creating their own earthquake on the small seismograph installed directly on the Museum floor.

Over the past year, IRIS has joined the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science and the USGS Albuquerque Seismological Lab in developing a prototype travelling museum display, based on the one still operating at the NM Museum. The exhibit´s objective is to present earthquakes not as destructive events, but rather as signals of the geological forces that build our mountains and create our ocean basins. In other words, the exhibit seeks to develop an appreciation for earthquakes as a reminder that we are living on the thin, outer crust of a planet whose interior is still cooling.

The display begins with a working mass-and-spring seismometer. By jumping on the ground in front of the display, a visitor sees ground motion recorded as the velocity between the moving frame of the seismometer and a suspended mass that remains stationary through inertia. The earthquake produced by each visitor is recorded on a rotating drum recorder. After creating their own earthquake, the visitor sees on two other two drum recorders similar signals from actual earthquakes being recorded in real time from two Global Seismograph Network (GSN) stations in other parts of the world (China and South America, for example). Realizing that the seismic signals have been recorded at these stations, the visitor can look up at a large video monitor that shows the location of the earthquake plotted on a world map. A second video display lists the time, magnitude, and geographic location of earthquakes that have occurred within the last few days, all of which are also displayed on the global map. In many cases, the viewer will be able to see on the rotating drum recorded signals from distant seismic stations, and realize that those ground motions were produced by a magnitude 6 earthquake that occurred, say, on the mid-Atlantic ridge earlier that day.

Along with the recent earthquakes, the world map also includes historical seismicity for the previous five-years. Text explains where earthquakes occur and the relationship between global seismicity patterns and plate tectonics. Additional text explains why earthquakes occur, the frequency of earthquakes, and the Richter magnitude scale along with familiar events of equivalent energy (tornadoes and explosions, for example). The visitor learns that earthquakes are always happening somewhere, and learns of the relationship between seismicity and plate tectonics.

This prototype museum display was developed as a launching point for further interest in seismology. Two handouts "How often do Earthquakes Occur?" and "Why do Earthquakes Occur?" allow the viewer to take home the main points of the exhibit for further reference and distribution. An additional handout "Watch Earthquakes as they Occur" allows viewers to continue monitoring seismicity and learning more about earthquakes through sites on the world-wide web.

Have your museum display idea built and seen by millions

We plan to expand the display for the tour with additional interactive kiosks that will illustrate related concepts such as:

1) continuous plate tectonic motion creates strain that is released catastrophically by earthquakes.

2) earthquakes produce compressional, extensional, and shear forces that are translated into different types of seismic waves.

3) the radioactive decay of the Earth ´ interior powers plate motions which manifest themselves through earthquakes.

Send IRIS your proposal for a display to illustrate any of the above concepts (or any other concepts you think should be included). Include a sketch and text. The designs will be judged by the museum development experts at the Franklin Institute. The winning designs will be constructed by staff from the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science and included in the "Powers of Nature" exhibit with your name and institution.

Deadline for submission March 2, 1998