3D Weather: Detecting and measuring earthquakes

Butte, Mont. -The ground under western Montana occasionally shakes and shakes an average of 10 times a day. In the video above, meteorologist Mitchell Coombs continues a deep dive into earthquakes and how to detect and measure them.

What underground features make our area seismically active? NBC Montana sat down with Mike Stickney, director of the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology's Bureau of Seismic Studies, to uncover the answers.

“These occur in a belt that runs from northwestern Montana down south and southeast into Yellowstone National Park,” he explains. “This is the northern part of what's known as the intermontane seismic belt. It's a belt of seismic activity that runs through Montana, south along the Idaho-Wyoming border, down through Utah, along the Wasatch Front, and all the way into southern Nevada.”

Within this belt of seismic activity are many different faults, all of which respond to the gradual stretching of the Earth's crust in our area.

In Montana, active mapping and lidar data helped reveal nearly 80 potential active faults.

Nearly 80 potentially active faults have been discovered in the state

In rare cases, earthquakes are large enough that we can feel the shaking, although most are too small for anyone to notice. However, they do not go unnoticed, thanks to the work of scientists around the world.

“The standard way to determine when and where an earthquake occurred and how strong it was is to measure the seismic waves produced by those earthquakes with arrays of sensors known as seismometers,” Stickney says. “They consist of a sensor buried in the ground that can detect small movements.”

This array of underground sensors can help scientists pinpoint where earthquakes occur

By measuring the exact time when seismic S and P waves arrive at each sensor, scientists can triangulate that data back to the origin of the waves as well as the depth at which they were triggered.

By measuring the exact time when seismic waves S and P { } arrive at each sensor, scientists can triangulate that data to the origin of the waves as well as the depth at which they were triggered.

The location on the surface where an earthquake occurs is known as the epicenter, and the area underground where the earthquake occurs is known as the epicenter.

The location on the surface where an earthquake occurs is known as the epicenter, and the area underground where the earthquake occurs is known as the epicenter.

The amplitude, or height, of the waves in seismograph readings helps measure the size or strength of an earthquake.

Earthquakes are measured according to what is known as the Richter scale. It is a scale that goes from zero to 10.

Most earthquakes in western Montana are below magnitude 2.5, but when they exceed magnitude 3.0, we can start to feel them.

Moderate property damage often occurs with earthquakes of magnitude 5.0 or higher. Significant damage occurs in earthquakes of magnitude 6.0 or greater. On average, the world witnesses about 140 earthquakes of this intensity annually. Most of these still fall between 6.0 and 6.9.

The energy released by earthquakes does not rise in a steady state for every 1.0 increase in their strength. It is more of a logarithmic scale. For example, a 5.0 magnitude earthquake releases 31.6 times the amount of energy as a 4.0 magnitude earthquake. Take a magnitude 6.0 earthquake, and that's 1,000 times more powerful than a magnitude 4.0 earthquake.

An increase of 1.0 constitutes an earthquake 31.6 times stronger. Increasing the magnitude of an earthquake by 2.0 increases the strength of the earthquake by a factor of 1000.

As for Montana, the largest earthquake in the state's history occurred on August 17, 1959. It had a magnitude of 7.3 and occurred near Lake Hebgen, northwest of West Yellowstone.

Montana's past, present and future are affected by the turbulent vibration of the Earth. This is something we must prepare for in the future.

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