UWI Seismic Research Centre

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UWI Seismic Research Centre
Founded1953;71 years ago (1953) (as the Volcanological Research Department)
FocusTo monitor and study earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis in the Eastern Caribbean and provide advice and information to protect lives and livelihoods. [1]
Location
Locations
  • University of the West Indies, St Augustine Campus.
Key people
 Pat Joseph, Director [2]
Affiliations University of the West Indies
Website Official website

The University of the West Indies Seismic Research Centre (UWI-SRC) is a centre for volcanological, seismic and geophysical research in Trinidad, which has the responsibility for monitoring and studying earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis across the Eastern Caribbean. Part of the University of the West Indies, it is also responsible for providing formal advice, and information, around the volcanic, seismic and tsunami hazards and events across the region, to reduce risk and protect lives and livelihoods. [3] [4] In recent years, UWI-SRC has managed ongoing volcanic unrest at the Soufriere Hills Volcano through the running of the Montserrat Volcano Observatory, [5] and the 2020–2021 eruptions of La Soufrière on St Vincent. [6]

Contents

History

UWI-SRC was established in 1953, as the Volcanological Research Department of the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture in Trinidad. In the early 1960s the department became the Seismic Research Unit of the University of the West Indies, and in 2008 was formally established as a research centre within the university, and took on the name Seismic Research Centre. [7] [8]

Regional seismic network

UWI-SRC manages the largest network of seismometers in the Caribbean, extending across all of the islands of the English-speaking Caribbean, and seventeen known or active volcanoes. [9] [10] The origins of the modern network go back to the early 1950s, when geophysicist Patrick Willmore was sent by the British Colonial Office to investigate a seismic crisis on St Kitts and Nevis which had begun in late December 1950. Willmore arrived in February 1951, but soon realised he had already missed the most significant earthquakes of the crisis. To prevent this happening again, Willmore recommended that a regional network of instruments be established by placing one seismograph on 'each of the major British islands', with data collected at a central office. [11] The first seismograph was installed in Trinidad; followed by others on St Vincent and Dominica, and by 1959 there were stations on eight islands. [8] In 2022, the network extends to more than 60 stations. [12] [10]

Over time, the instruments used in the seismic network have changed radically. The first seismometers installed were analogue seismographs designed by Patrick Willmore, which recorded onto photographic paper. During the 1970s, radio-telemetry was introduced, so that signals could be transmitted from the analogue field stations, to the UWI-SRC headquarters. Tools were developed to digitise and time-stamp the analogue data, and then to record and process the digitised data using an in-house algorithm called "WurstMachine" to calculate the earthquake parameters: hypocentre and magnitude. [10] The current generation of seismometers are fully digital, and networked so that they can stream data to UWI-SRC headquarters. The network includes both broadband, three-component and one-component instruments. Many of the seismic stations are co-located with other monitoring instruments (including accelerometers and continuous GPS receivers), and some are shared with regional monitoring agencies run by UNAVCO, IPGP and others. [10]

Directors

Directors of UWI-SRC include

Awards

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seismometer</span> Instrument that records seismic waves by measuring ground motions

A seismometer is an instrument that responds to ground displacement and shaking such as caused by quakes, volcanic eruptions, and explosions. They are usually combined with a timing device and a recording device to form a seismograph. The output of such a device—formerly recorded on paper or film, now recorded and processed digitally—is a seismogram. Such data is used to locate and characterize earthquakes, and to study the internal structure of Earth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency</span> Intergovernmental network

The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) is an inter-regional supportive network of independent emergency units throughout the Caribbean region. Formed on September 1, 2005, as the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency (CDERA), it underwent a name change to CDEMA in September 2009.

The Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris- Université de Paris is a French governmental, non-profit research and higher education establishment located in Paris, dedicated to the study of earth and planetary sciences by combining observations, laboratory analysis and construction of conceptual analogical and numerical models.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Soufrière Hills</span> Volcano on Montserrat in the Caribbean

The Soufrière Hills are an active, complex stratovolcano with many lava domes forming its summit on the Caribbean island of Montserrat. After a long period of dormancy, the Soufrière Hills volcano became active in 1995 and continued to erupt through 2010. Its last eruption was in 2013. Its eruptions have rendered more than half of Montserrat uninhabitable, destroying the capital city, Plymouth, and causing widespread evacuations: about two-thirds of the population have left the island. Chances Peak in the Soufrière Hills was the highest summit on Montserrat until the mid-1990s, but it has since been eclipsed by various rising and falling volcanic domes during the recent volcanic activity.

The Pacific Northwest Seismic Network, or PNSN, collects and studies ground motions from about 400 seismometers in the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington. PNSN monitors volcanic and tectonic activity, gives advice and information to the public and policy makers, and works to mitigate earthquake hazard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">La Soufrière (Saint Vincent)</span> Active stratovolcano on the Caribbean island Saint Vincent

La Soufrière or Soufrière Saint Vincent is an active volcano on the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. It is the highest peak on Saint Vincent, and has had eight recorded eruptions since 1718. The latest eruptive activity began on 27 December 2020 with the slow extrusion of a dome of lava, and culminated in a series of explosive events between 9 and 22 April 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kick 'em Jenny</span> Submarine volcano in the Caribbean Sea

Kick 'em Jenny is an active submarine volcano or seamount on the Caribbean Sea floor, located 8 km (5 mi) north of the island of Grenada and about 8 km (5 mi) west of Ronde Island in the Grenadines. Kick-'em-Jenny rises 1,300 m (4,265 ft) above the sea floor on the steep inner western slope of the Lesser Antilles ridge. The South American tectonic plate is subducting the Caribbean tectonic plate to the east of this ridge and under the Lesser Antilles island arc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saint Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago</span> Town in Tunapuna–Piarco, Trinidad and Tobago

Saint Augustine is a town in the northwest of Trinidad, Trinidad and Tobago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chances Peak</span> Summit on Montserrat

Chances Peak is a summit of the active complex stratovolcano named Soufrière Hills, the youngest volcanic complex on the island of Montserrat, a British overseas territory located in the Caribbean Sea. It was the highest point on the island until the mid-1990s, when fluctuating volcanic domes during the 1995–1999 Soufrière Hills eruptions eclipsed the peak in height. The Soufriere Hills volcano is on a destructive plate margin, and is part of the Eastern Caribbean Volcanic Arc. This volcanic arc lies on the Caribbean plate, and has formed by subduction of the North American Plate beneath it.

A series of small volcanic earthquakes measuring less than 4.0 on the Richter magnitude scale took place in the sparsely populated Nazko area of the Central Interior of British Columbia, Canada, from October 9, 2007, to June 12, 2008. They occurred just west of Nazko Cone, a small tree-covered cinder cone that last erupted about 7,200 years ago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Qualibou</span>

Qualibou, also known as the Soufrière Volcanic Center, is a 3.5 × 5 km-wide caldera on the island of Saint Lucia that formed between 32,000 and 39,000 years ago. This eruption also formed the Choiseul Tuff which covers the southeastern portion of the island.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lesser Antilles Volcanic Arc</span> Volcanic arc that forms the eastern boundary of the Caribbean Plate

The Lesser Antilles Volcanic Arc is a volcanic arc that forms the eastern boundary of the Caribbean Plate. It is part of a subduction zone, also known as the Lesser Antilles subduction zone, where the oceanic crust of the North American Plate is being subducted under the Caribbean Plate. This subduction process formed a number of volcanic islands, from the Virgin Islands in the north to the islands off the coast of Venezuela in the south. The Lesser Antilles Volcanic Arc includes 21 'active' volcanoes, notably Soufriere Hills on Montserrat; Mount Pelée on Martinique; La Grande Soufrière on Guadeloupe; Soufrière Saint Vincent on Saint Vincent; Mount Scenery on Saba; and the submarine volcano Kick 'em Jenny which lies about 10 kilometres (5.4 nmi) north of Grenada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Weston Observatory (Boston College)</span>

Weston Observatory is a geophysical research laboratory of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Boston College. The Observatory is located in the town of Weston, Massachusetts, about 13 miles (21 km) west of downtown Boston.

Harry Oscar Wood (1879–1958) was an American seismologist who made several significant contributions in the field of seismology in the early twentieth-century. Following the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco, California, Wood expanded his background of geology and mineralogy and his career took a change of direction into the field of seismology. In the 1920s he co-developed the torsion seismometer, a device tuned to detect short-period seismic waves that are associated with local earthquakes. In 1931 Wood, along with another seismologist, redeveloped and updated the Mercalli intensity scale, a seismic intensity scale that is still in use as a primary means of rating an earthquake's effects.

Richard E. A. Robertson is a Professor of Geology and past Director of the University of the West Indies Seismic Research Centre. He studied Geology and Volcanology at Mona Campus of the University of the West Indies in Jamaica and Leeds University, United Kingdom.

Joan L. Latchman is a seismologist from Trinidad and Tobago who was the first woman to lead the University of the West Indies Seismic Research Centre. She was awarded the 2019 Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency Council Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2021 eruption of La Soufrière</span> Volcanic eruption in the Caribbean

La Soufrière, a stratovolcano on the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, began an effusive eruption on 27 December 2020. On 9 April 2021 there was an explosive eruption, and the volcano "continued to erupt explosively" over the following days, with pyroclastic flows. The activity pattern of the eruption was comparable to that of the event that occurred in 1902, which had a Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) of 4. The volcano is known to have erupted 23 times in the last 4,000 years, and had been dormant since 1979.

Erouscilla "Pat" Joseph is a volcanologist, and Director of the University of the West Indies Seismic Research Centre, which oversees seismic and volcanic monitoring of the English-speaking Eastern Caribbean. She led the volcanological management of the 2021 La Soufriere eruptions on Saint Vincent, for which the Seismic Research Centre received global accolades.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wood–Anderson seismometer</span> Instrument fo measuring strength of earthquakes

The Wood–Anderson seismometer is a torsion seismometer developed in the United States by Harry O. Wood and John August Anderson in the 1920s to record local earthquakes in southern California. It photographically records the horizontal motion. The seismometer uses a pendulum of 0.8g, its period is 0.8 seconds, its magnification is 2,800 times, and its damping constant is 0.8. Charles Francis Richter developed the Richter magnitude scale using the Wood–Anderson seismometer.

References

  1. ↑ "Vision, Mission & Core Values | The UWI Seismic Research Centre". uwiseismic.com.
  2. ↑ "Erouscilla Joseph | The UWI Seismic Research Centre". uwiseismic.com.
  3. ↑ "Vision, Mission & Core Values | The UWI Seismic Research Centre". uwiseismic.com.
  4. ↑ "UWI Seismic Research Centre: Monitoring earthquakes, volcanoes for 70 years - Trinidad and Tobago Newsday". newsday.co.tt. April 2, 2023.
  5. 1 2 Andrews, Erline (September 1, 2013). "Great Shakes: UWI's Seismic Research Centre".
  6. ↑ Digital, V. P. (June 18, 2022). "The UWI Seismic Research Centre Cops Global Award for Managing La Soufrière Crisis".
  7. ↑ "History | The UWI Seismic Research Centre". uwiseismic.com.
  8. 1 2 Latchman, Lynch & Edwards (2012). "60 years of monitoring volcanic and earthquake activity of the English-speaking Caribbean" (PDF). Caribbean Geography.
  9. ↑ "UWI Seismic Research Centre receives funding to strengthen earthquake monitoring - CDEMA". www.cdema.org.
  10. 1 2 3 4 Dondin, Frédéric J.-Y.; Lynch, Lloyd; Ramsingh, Chan; Ryan, Graham A.; Papadopoulous, Ilias; Rueppel, Daniel; Joseph, Erouscilla P.; Latchman, Joan L.; Robertson, Richard E. A.; Nath, Nisha; Mathura, Ranissa; Balchan, Amit; George, Stephen; Juman, Ian; Madoo, Farrah; Manette, Garth; Ramsingh, Hannah (February 11, 2019). "The University of the West Indies-Seismic Research Centre Volcano Monitoring Network: Evolution since 1953 and Challenges in Maintaining a State-of-the-Art Network in a Small Island Economy". Geosciences. 9 (2): 71. Bibcode:2019Geosc...9...71D. doi: 10.3390/geosciences9020071 . S2CID   96450400.
  11. ↑ Willmore, P. L. (May 5, 1952). "The Earthquake Series in St. Kitts – Nevis, 1950–51: With Notes on Soufrière Activity in the Lesser Antilles". Nature. 169 (4306): 770–772. Bibcode:1952Natur.169..770W. doi:10.1038/169770a0. S2CID   4200535 – via www.nature.com.
  12. ↑ "UWI Today". sta.uwi.edu.
  13. ↑ "The Late John Tomblin (at SRC) | The UWI Seismic Research Centre". uwiseismic.com.
  14. ↑ https://sta.uwi.edu/resources/documents/UWI_Faculty_Report_04-05.pdf
  15. ↑ "UWI Today". sta.uwi.edu.
  16. ↑ "Director of UWI Seismic Research Centre appointed to professor | Loop Trinidad & Tobago". Loop News.
  17. ↑ "Archives". CARICOM Today. 20 June 2022.
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