Statement from SMU Seismologist Brian Stump
January 6, 2015
SMU’s seismology team is committed to helping North Texans understand more about the increasing number of earthquakes felt in our region over the last few years, most recently near the City of Irving.
A 2.4-magnitude earthquake recorded at 8:29 p.m. Jan. 1, 2015, and estimated to be near the old Texas Stadium site was the 17th earthquake felt in the area since early September.
An SMU team installed one portable seismometer in a building on the northeast side of the City of Irving Monday, Jan. 5, aiming to supplement data being collected from more distant sites by the United States Geological Survey to identify the location of the quakes. The location of the Irving seismometer is not being made public to preserve the integrity of the data it collects.
This latest installation provides a third source of data SMU can tap in helping to determine the location of the Irving-area earthquakes. The seismology team also can retrieve data from a University-controlled portable seismometer previously installed at a site south of DFW airport, as well as the seismometer permanently installed in the basement of Heroy Hall on the SMU campus.
SMU’s interest in these Irving-area earthquakes is at this point focused on helping to identify their exact location.
The University’s seismology team is not currently engaged in a larger study of the cause of the Irving quakes, but I will brief the Irving City Council Jan. 15 on what data might be expected from the Irving installation, as well as on the results of past research into earthquakes in the Fort Worth Basin. Information on those previous SMU studies is available at http://www.smu.edu/News/NewsIssues/EarthquakeStudy.
There has been a significant increase in earthquakes in the Fort Worth basin since October 2008. It’s important to all of us to learn as much as we can about them.
Brian Stump is the Albritton Chair of Geological Sciences in the Huffington Department of Earth Sciences in SMU’s Dedman College.