When a tree falls in a forest… the Australian Geosciences Earthquake Center probably knows about it

Dr Trevor Allen, Alex Dow and Allen Earle from the National Earthquake Alert Center (NEAC) at Geoscience Australia. Photo: James Coleman.

They usually take the form of a refrigerator-like box in the middle of a paddock, with a couple of solar panels for power and perhaps a satellite dish.

They're called ground seismographs, and they mean there isn't a mine going off anywhere in the country that the person behind the desk at Geoscience Australia doesn't know about.

Or rather, an earthquake.

Geoscience Australia cares for more than 100 seismographers across Australia, the Pacific Islands, the Southern and Indian Oceans and the Antarctic regions which together form the Australian National Seismic Network (ANSN).

There are 500 other stations providing information from all the world's continents and major oceans.

Ahead of Earth Science Week 2024, which runs from 13 to 19 October, Geoscience Australia has given us a special tour of its nerve center – the National Earthquake Alert Center (NEAC), at its headquarters in Simonston – where earthquake monitoring is a full-time, 24/7 job.

A seismic station, as part of the Australian National Seismic Network (ANSN). Image: Australian Geosciences.

In general, the federal government agency is charged with “monitoring and evaluating the Earth,” according to Strategic Sciences Director Dr. Verity Normington.

“Geoscience Australia does a lot of work with other agencies, such as the Bureau of Meteorology, on tsunami warnings, and the CSIRO on groundwater resources, and we are looking at prospecting for natural resources and doing geological surveys,” she says.

A large portion of the workforce is dedicated to making the blue dot locator on Google Maps as accurate as possible, and that includes space and satellites.

Geosciences Australia Strategic Science Director Dr Verity Normington. Photo: James Coleman.

“It's not just about today, because once we go to self-driving cars, we really need to know exactly where the gutter is or where the tree is, and there's a big difference between five centimeters and 20 centimetres,” Dr Normington explains.

“A lot of this work is done on the surface, so we have receivers on the ground talking to satellites, and the more receivers we have, the more accurate our locations are.”

The headquarters also includes an education center that welcomes more than 10,000 students and teachers and between 2,000 and 3,000 other visitors each year. Items on display include the only piece of moon rock in the Southern Hemisphere, on loan from NASA.

“We have all kinds of items from all over the country to increase understanding of geoscience and its value in everything we do.”

Apparently the world's tectonic plates, floating on the red-hot molten rock we call magma, are always rubbing against each other, and these movements are usually too subtle for humans to detect.

So, when NEAC really cares is when it gets high on the charts. Any seismic movement of magnitude 3.5 or greater here in Australia, or magnitude 5 or greater anywhere in the world, triggers an earthquake warning.

But before this can be published, there is a lot of work to be done.

The first point in the system is to check if it is real. Complex computer algorithms look for changes in baseline readings, so instances of “environmental noise” – such as a mine explosion – will creep in from time to time.

Australian National Seismic Network (ANSN) map. Image: Australian Geosciences.

For this reason, there is always at least one employee, along with a qualified seismologist and an IT administrator, on site at all times to look for anomalies.

Another good way to find out if an earthquake is real is to start receiving 'felt reports' from the public through the Geoscience Australia website. For example, during a 5.9 magnitude earthquake in Victoria in 2021, 44,000 reports were submitted within 10 minutes.

The goal is that within 10 minutes of a high reading appearing, NEMA's National Situation Room (NSR) in Barton knows about it, so they can brief local emergency services and the media if necessary.

If there is a possibility of triggering a tsunami, there is another telephone marked “BOM” which acts as a hotline for the Met Office. The BOM is provided with all the data, and then makes its own assessment and issues a tsunami alert if necessary.

Within 30 minutes, an earthquake alert is posted on the Geoscience Australia website.

In the event of a power outage or technical malfunction, there is another smaller setup in the NRS office to which the entire operation can be moved. Each week, staff conduct a scheduled handover to ensure that everyone knows what they need to do and that all systems are working properly.

The information isn't straightforward either, it's all mapped and recorded to form a seismic record for every part of Australia. This is especially useful for developing building codes, so developers know how much movement a site might have before putting anything permanent on it.

So, thanks to the NEAC team – we all have a lot to thank you for.

Geoscience Australia is open 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. Entrance and parking are free.

Original article published by James Coleman on Riotact.

Sources 1/ https://Google.com/ 2/ https://psnews.com.au/when-a-tree-falls-in-a-forest-chances-are-geoscience-australias-earthquake-centre-knows-about-it/146066 The mention sources can contact us to remove/changing this article

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