Seismology is FUN!
In below you'll find some fun projects I collaborated and with which we communicate science at Seismology.be.
The 2022 Nerdquake at the Nerdland Science Festival
The Nerdland festival is a unique Science Festival in Flanders (BE). In 2022 Koen Van Noten and Raphael De Plaen were asked if a 800-jumping crowd could "generate" an earthquake? Time for a test. We placed 20 SmartSolo seismic nodes around the Science tent, up to a distance of 1.2 km from the tent. During the opening show, we let the crowd jump on the beats of the Nerdland tune and then stopped the music. The crowd was amazing and the ground motion was easily measured by the fartest node. We measured the amplitude of the jump after removing the instrument response and saw that the amplitude would be similar to an earthquake with magnitude 1.5! So we generated not an earthquake, but a Nerdquake. Great experiment and science communication!
European Championships 2016: GOAL QUAKES recorded by the Uccle seismometer
As Scientists in Belgium we are also methodically measuring the human effects of vibrations on the oscillation of the earth. in 2016, we measured small earthquakes every time our national soccer team "The Red Devils" scored at the european championships.
The image you see below documents seismic activity recorded at the Uccle Surface seismic station form the match between Hungary and Belgium in which Belgium won the match. 4-0 ! The first goal is not clearly visible, but the three next triggered a big energy release! Goal-quakes! Belgian Red Devils! The Youtube movie shows the seismic activity during the Belgium - Wales game. Unfortunately Belgium lost the game. The end of a very fun project. We'll be back at the WC2018 in Russia!
7/06 [NL] Zie het VTM nieuws over de Goalquakes
WE SEE YOU RUNNING: 10 km of Uccle
Seismic activity recorded from the Uccle Surface seismometer during a 10K running race at Uccle (BE).
As people past twice near the Royal Observatory of Belgium in Uccle, you'll clearly see the spread in energy during the race.
