Courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey
Did You Feel It?
Did You Feel It? is a Web site produced by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to tap the abundant information available about earthquakes from the people who actually experience them. By taking advantage of the vast numbers of Internet users, USGS seeks to get a more complete description of what people experienced, the effects of the earthquake and the extent of damage. With the help of citizen scientists, USGS can do this almost instantly.
By contributing experience of the earthquake, either immediately afterward, or whenever it is possible for to do so, citizen scientists will have made a contribution to the scientific body of information about this earthquake. They will also ensure that their areas have been represented in the compilation of the shaking map. This is a two-way street. Not only will citizen scientists add valuable information on the extent of ground shaking and damage, but in the process USGS hopes citizen scientists will learn more about how other communities fared and gain a greater understanding of the effects of earthquakes.
Project Details
- PRINCIPAL SCIENTIST: David Wald, Supervisory Research Geophysicist
- SCIENTIST AFFILIATION: USGS National Earthquake Information Center
- DATES: Ongoing
- PROJECT TYPE: Questionnaire
- COST: Free
- GRADE LEVEL: All Ages
- TIME COMMITMENT: Variable
- HOW TO JOIN:
Visit the USGS Did You Feel It? Web site.
See more projects in Free, Questionnaire, All Ages.
See what we're tweeting about
2 Comments
Add CommentNo doubt felt reports have opened a panorama to experiences noted at the time of quake events, yet I think it's time to take it to the Next Gen and finally ask citizens if they noticed anything unusual before an earthquake occurred and build a repository for precursory earthquake activity.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhile these experiences are usually written off as coincidence it's difficult to dismiss an entire bird population including all water fowl leaving an area as occurred two weeks before an M 7.5 at Lake Hebgen in Montana in 1959. And can we accept an entire town of screeching birds at two o'clock in the morning as a harbinger of something notable to occur as took place in Okinawa in 2010 prior to a M 6.5 that arrived three hours later?
And is eight years of documenting bird and squirrel activity which is not governed by human behavior demonstrating all's quiet before quakes as low as M 1.7 occurring within 24 hours of such events better than receiving a 15 second electronic early warning?
No one can control a wild bird, thus I think we might conclude if you live where there are birds noting the absence of them, loud noises from them or lack of the song from the sky I believe offers everyone who lives where birds reside in earthquake locales their own free warning system.
But can the human be taught to listen and pay attention to such natural warnings? It's difficult to say in the electronic age.
I am convinced that earthquakes are not only caused by natural planet events, but also by global worming. I am a lifelong student of science. That's it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisConsider the melting of snow in both the sought and north poles. In geology we learned that isostasy is involved in plate tectonics, amongst other effects. Question: is it possible that the loss of weight by snow melting can cause plate displacement thereby more earth quakes? Haven't found anything on this subject.