Month: September 2020

M 2.7 near Logan, UT

Posted on by Mark Hale

PRESS RELEASE
University of Utah Seismograph Stations
Released: September 19, 2020 10:45 PM MDT

The University of Utah Seismograph Stations reports that an earthquake of magnitude 2.7 occurred at 09:56 PM on September 19, 2020 (MDT). The hypocenter of the shock was located 11 miles beneath Logan Canyon in the Bear River Range,  7 miles east northeast of Logan, UT. 

This earthquake was reported felt by residents of Logan and other cities and towns in the Cache Valley. Today’s earthquake occurred in a seismically active area of Utah. A total of 14 earthquakes of magnitude 3.0 or greater have occurred within 16 mi of the epicenter of this event since 1962. The largest of these events was a magnitude 4.6 that occurred on March 17, 1966, 14 miles east of Providence, UT.

Anyone who felt the earthquake is encouraged to fill out a survey form on the US Geological Survey website: earthquake.usgs.gov.

Earthquake Summary:

Date (UTC):   September 20, 2020         Time (UTC):   03:56
Date (local): September 19, 2020         Time (local): 09:56 PM MDT
Latitude:     41 45.95′ N
Longitude:    111 42.32′ W
Preferred magnitude: 2.7 Ml

2018 Annual Report

Posted on by Becca Sumsion
The 2018 Annual ReportDownload

2018 was an especially difficult year because of the unexpected death of Dave Drobeck on February 11. Dave served the University of Utah Seismograph Stations (UUSS) for over 20 years and was instrumental in developing the Yellowstone Seismic Network into one of the premier volcano monitoring networks in the world. Dave’s loss was especially hard on the UUSS engineering group—Corey Hatch, Wes O’keefe, and Jon Rusho—who had to take up extra work duties while grieving the loss of their colleague. A summary of Dave’s career was presented by Bob Smith at a ceremony on February 22, and is reprinted in this report. 

While someone like Dave can never truly be replaced, I am happy to report that a former UUSS undergraduate research assistant, ArvindParapuzha, agreed to return to UUSS as a seismic engineer trainee in May, and that Wes O’keefe worked his first full field season in Yellowstone this past fall. On July 1, long-time seismic analyst Mark Hale was promoted to senior application systems analyst. Congratulations, Mark!

The biggest highlight of 2018 was the June 14 announcement that the University of Utah had been selected to receive a $140 million grant from the Department of Energy to develop the Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (FORGE) site near Milford, Utah. The selection was due in no small part to the effort of UUSS associate director Kris Pankow and her team of students and staff, who created a seismic mitigation plan for the project. Dr. Pankow will continue managing the FORGE seismic risk as work ramps up over the next several years.

We look forward to an exciting new year in 2019. I encourage you to visit our revamped web page at quake.utah.edu to stay up-to-date on our new initiatives and products as well as to find out about the latest seismic activity in Utah. You can also follow UUSS on Twitter with the handle @UUSSQuake.

Best wishes,

Keith D. Koper, UUSS Director