This past weekend, on Sept. 2, a small swarm of seismic activity sprang up near Soda Springs, Idaho. The shaking was significant enough to register on our recently acquired seismometer in the College of Western Idaho (CWI) Geology lab. From Sunday to Monday afternoon we measured seven individual events ranging in magnitude from ~3.8 to the largest event of mag. 5.3. We also managed to capture North Korea’s detonation of a hydrogen bomb which was measured at mag. 6.3. Our TS1 seismometer is a very simple version of “research grade” seismometers but will accurately detect local events larger than about mag. 3 and global events higher than mag 6.5 or 7 (depending on distance). Tectonically Soda Springs is within the “Yellowstone seismic parabola” so events such as this come as no surprise to geoscientists. The stresses and geodynamics involved here are not likely capable of producing a massive earthquake, but we might see something similar in magnitude to the 6.9 mag Challis, Idaho earthquake in 1983. We will all be keeping an eye on the seismometer over the next week or so!
