QuakeFinder Blog

QuakeFinder has switched its internal processing over to a much larger disc array, and made several other process refinements.  Our estimate was four days of outage and we got it done in three.  We will be paying close attention over the next several days to make sure everything is working.  Thanks to everyone who helped out!

We at Stellar Solutions/QuakeFinder wish a special Happy Holidays all our “hosts” who let us use their property for our instruments, all of our sponsors (Stellar Solutions, NASA, Musk Foundation, PG&E, Telefonica-Peru, and Vodafone) for all their generous support, all our collaborators (PUCP-Peru, NCU-Taiwan, NOA-Greece, SETI in California, Stanford Geophysics, and USGS), and you, or web visitors, who are interested in our research and progress.  It has been a great year, getting our instrument count well over 100 sites, upgrading our website, and getting closer to understanding our “restless Earth” and her frequent outbursts, aka–earthquakes.  The best to you and your families and the warmest wishes for a happy and safe New Year.

We rolled out our new website yesterday morning. It has a wider format, better handling of user accounts, and is more secure than our prior implementation. We are still ironing out a few ripples that have cropped up, mostly having to do with transferring user accounts from the old web framework to the new one. Some of you who joined in the time period 12/14 – 12/19 will be receiving an email regarding how to re-activate your accounts. Thanks to everyone who pitched in to complete the project!!

QuakeFinder just completed the installation of 4 new instruments in Greece to complement the 4 units currently there.  Two of the new units were installed in the Corinth area of Greece, west of Athens, and 2 units on Santorini Island in the southern Aegean Sea.  Santorini was the site of a gigantic volcanic explosion 3600 years ago, and created a crater almost 11 km long by 6 km wide and spawned a huge tsunami that wiped out the Minoan civilization on Crete, 110 km to the south. According to some local legends, it is the site of the destroyed the city of Atlantis. The reason that this area was selected is based on concerns of the seismic community about Santorini relative to some recent rumbling inside the caldera area during January 2011 and April 2012. One of the 2 sites on Santorini is next to the archeological excavations at Akrotiri (Acrotiri), the ancient port city of Thira (Santorini). We also have a second unit to the east of Fira, the main city on the edge of the caldera. With the city of Fira situated on the 800-900 ft cliffs looking down on the caldera, and Acrotiri buried under 30m of ash, these two sites have to get the award for the most visually spectacular locations associated of the entire QuakeFinder network of 112 sites.