HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text (PDF) References Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by LEGGETTE, R. M. Articles by TAYLOR, G. H. Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation

Earthquakes instrumentally recorded in artesian wells^*

Abstract

Water-level fluctuations produced by earthquakes have been instrumentally recorded in many observation wells. Such fluctuations are produced only in wells that penetrate water which is confined under pressure. Most of the instruments that produced these earthquake records are automatic water-stage recorders operating with floats on the water surface in a well. In such recording devices water must move into or out of the bottom of the well to produce records of fluctuation. Earthquake disturbances are rapid and oscillating and float recorders therefore do not quantitatively record such disturbances. During the earthquakes of March 12 and April 14, 1934, a recording pressure gage was in operation on an artesian well in Ogden Valley, Utah. The fluctuation of pressure recorded during these earthquakes was about 5.5 and 3.8 pounds per square inch, respectively. This instrument is so constructed that very little water moves into or out of the well when changes of hydrostatic pressure take place, and thus the rapidly oscillating changes in hydrostatic pressure that occur during earthquakes are recorded. This suggests a quantitative method of recording earthquakes that may yield data not given by present methods.

Footnotes

^* [Published by permission of the Director of the United States Geological Survey. Received for publication June 25, 1934.]

This article has been cited by other articles:

				E. E. REXIN, J. OLIVER, and D. PRENTISS Seismically-induced fluctuations of the water level in the Nunn-Bush well in Milwaukee Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, January 1, 1962; 52(1): 17 - 25. [Abstract] [PDF]

				J. P. EATON and K. J. TAKASAKI Seismological interpretation of earthquake-induced water-level fluctuations in wells Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, July 1, 1959; 49(3): 227 - 245. [Abstract] [PDF]

				H. E. THOMAS Fluctuations of ground-water levels during the earthquakes of November 10, 1938, and January 24, 1939 Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, April 1, 1940; 30(2): 93 - 97. [PDF]