Science News

n1vux on 2005-04-05T18:04:10

CU-Boulder Researchers Pioneer New Technique To Free Seismologists From 'Tyranny Of Earthquakes'

«Seismologists have long relied on earthquakes or expensive tools like explosives to help create images of Earth's interior, but a new method created by University of Colorado at Boulder researchers will produce quicker, cheaper and clearer images.»

- Applying Seismic tomographic techniques to ambient seismic noise, not just the big noises.

«CUB seismic tomographic model [is] [u]sing measurements from random seismic wavefields to improve resolution of seismic tomographic models. [This] new approach ... allows seismic measurements that are independent of earthquake occurrence. It is based on a recently demonstrated possibility to extract the deterministic surface-wave signals by cross-correlating the ambient seismic noise (Shapiro and Campillo, GRL, 2004). The dispersion measurements made from cross-correlations of the random noise have significant advantages over traditional measurements made from the ballistic waves. The new method will be particularly useful in the context of dense array of seismometers such as USArray as demonstrated by our recent results in California.»

- CU PR CU Author Homepage and March 11 issue (Abstract) of Science, via Science Daily
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Economics, Quantum Physica, Electronics, and Moore's "Law"

«The planet is producing 10^18 transistors per year and this number will soon approach the Avogadro's number.»

And, Why Raleigh's laws didn't require X-ray lithography after all.

- Motl's Reference Frame, via Src