Superstorm Sandy Shook the U.S., Literally

Jasmine Diaz                                                                                       June 6, 2013

Earth Science (C-Even)                                                                       Ms. Davies

Superstorm Sandy Shook the U.S., Literally

"Superstorm Sandy Shook the U.S., Literally." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 18 Apr. 2013. Web. 06 June 2013. <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130418213919.htm>.

            Although Hurricane Sandy seemed like just another natural disaster, something about it was unlike many others. Sandy rattled many parts of New York City and Long Island, but it didn’t end there. At the University of Utah, researchers found that as the ocean waves hit each other and the shore, they also shook a large percentage of the United States. Keith Koper, director of the University of Utah Seismograph Stations, says he detected seismic waves, which were created by the oceans waves hitting both the East Coast and smashing into each other. Oner Sufri, a University of Utah geology and geophysics doctoral student and first author of the study with Koper, says they were able to track the hurricane by looking at the microseisms, which are relatively small seismic waves, which were generated by Sandy. Although there is no magnitude for microseisms, Koper predicts they range from about 2 to 3 on an earthquake magnitude scale. The microseisms generated by Sandy were detected by Earthscope. Earthscope is a National Science Foundation-funded array of about 500 portable seismometers, which have been recently moving east. The purpose of Earthscope is to use seismic waves from the earthquakes and other sources to make images of Earth's crust and upper mantle beneath North America. Earthscope picked up the seismic waves from the ocean waves collision, which led us to believe that Sandy shook the U.S. Seismologists can track Hurricane Sandy and other natural disasters because seismometers detect three components of motion, which include one vertical and two horizontal. Koper says, "If you have enough seismometers, you can get enough data to get arrows to point at the source." Basically Koper is saying that the seismologists didn't track Sandy in real time, but the seismographic data of the storm suggests it might be possible to help track storms in the future using their seismicity.

            I chose this article because it relates seismic waves and hurricanes, which we just, finished covering in class. Although, in class we only learned about how seismic waves relate to earthquakes. Meanwhile, this article relates them to hurricanes also. This is important to society because when people hear about seismic waves they automatically assume an earthquake, but in this sense, it was about a hurricane. This article taught me that seismic waves can be created by a range of causes, and that earthquakes are not the only things that generate seismic waves.

            This article was very fluent and easy to read, which made the article enjoyable. I also enjoyed how the article was put into three subtopics, because it made it easier to follow along. Lastly, I enjoyed how they gave a lot of information about seismic waves, seismograph, seismologists, and microseisms. Although the article was easy to read and informative, there were things that were choppy and unclear. To make it better, for example, they could’ve elaborated on what causes seismic waves, besides earthquakes. Also, I felt they could’ve explained Earthscope in an easier way, that wasn’t as choppy. Other than that, I felt the article was well written and understandable.