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Earthquakes are part of the Southern California experience. And when earthquakes occur, people turn to the Caltech Seismological Lab for answers. But how do we know exactly where and how big an earthquake is? Is someone always watching those drums? What exactly goes on at a seismological laboratory? Take a tour of the Seismo Lab and find out. The tour provides visitors the opportunity to learn what we do when an earthquake occurs and how we get that information out to the public.
The Seismo Lab Operations Center as seen from the Media Center during a tour (Senior Seismic Analyst Nick Scheckel is seen in the foreground of the photo above). A large set of windows serves as a barrier between the media center and the operations center, enabling the media and public tours to view the staging area for the heart of the seismo lab.
Dr. Lucy Jones during an interview in the Caltech Seismo Lab Media Center
Tours of the Seismo Lab are available upon request. These tours are aimed towards students in grades 6 and above, but individuals or small private parties may join a scheduled tour if space allows. Tours are offered the first Tuesday and Thursday of each month from October to June. For more information or to schedule a tour, please contact Caltech Public Relations at (626)395-6327.
Seismic Analysts generally lead most tours (Seismic Analyst Anthony Guarino leads a tour shown above). Many familiar sites are seen on the tours, such as the set of drum seismographs, shown here. These drums have been shown for many years as the backdrop for many media interviews. New digital displays will soon replace the older drum seismographs, which are used only as an historical display.
After a moderate earthquake, many news agencies swarm the media center in the seismological laboratory to receive the latest breaking news. If you see news vans in front of the seismo lab, there has either been an earthquake, or it is a slow news day.