CERI Overview: The First Decade, 1984-1994

The Center for Earthquake Research and Information (CERI) is the successor of the Tennessee Earthquake Information Center (TEIC) chartered in 1977 by the Tennessee Legislature to conduct research on the causes and consequences of earthquakes and provide seismic safety and mitigation information, provide reports, background information, and research on earthquakes and earthquake hazards for citizens and government units.

By 1984, TEIC was performing these functions with a staff of two geophysics faculty members, eight technical and administrative employees, and four graduate students, occupying a residence building at 3904 Central Avenue. Seismograph stations were then operated at 26 sites with support from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The 1984 Center of Excellence (COE) mandate for expansion was to build the earthquake research program to a level of international scope and reputation, to establish an earthquake engineeringcapability, to establish a regional earthquake hazard and mitigation resource center, and to establish a geophysics Ph.D. program in the university's Department of Geological Sciences. State and local news releases during the time the Center was being established are also available.

Staff and Facilities

To accomplish the COE goals, nine new faculty members were recruited, seven in geophysics and two in civil engineering, the permanent non-faculty staff was increased to 14, the original building was expanded, two more existing residences were occupied and a new 10,000 square foot prefabricated building was built. Present space totals 21,000 square feet, including since 1991 a CERI-staffed Earth Science Library. In 1985, CERI installed MSU's first time-sharing VAX system serving all faculty and student computing needs; providing the best available research computing environment remains a high priority. A partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) established in 1991 provides CERI with additional resources including two adjunct faculty members working at CERI as full-time participants in the geophysics program.

Research Programs

Under the COE program, CERI seismograph networks grew to 30 stations in seven states, providing data on regional earthquakes which clearly delineated the active New Madrid seismic zone (NMSZ) and the less active and more poorly understood Southern Appalachian seismic zone. Seismic data were transmitted to CERI in analog form, mainly over expensive dedicated telephone links.Substantial operational funding came from the NRC and USGS. Data were digitized and archived at CERI.

In 1992, a new Federal policy sharply reduced NRC operational funding for regional seismograph networks but offered state-of-the-art seismograph equipment for a smaller number of regional stations through the USGS/ National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP). The number of seismograph stations recorded at CERI then dwindled rapidly. Early in 1993, the Tennessee Valley Authority(TVA) offered to carry CERI seismic data on its regional microwave network. This seemed to assure a bright future for CERI networks; all CERIefforts were directed toward utilizing TVA facilities. However, in late 1994, TVA withdrew its offer except for the possibility of a communication line between Memphis and Knoxville. Therefore, at this low point, signals from only six seismograph stations are currently being received at CERI, and CERI is again redesigning the seismograph network with improved technology and lower operating costs than in the 1980's. The optomistic plan is to install a new 100-station NMSZ network during the next two years. The possibility of salvaging portions of a seismograph network now being abandoned by TVA will also depend on CERI resources.

Since 1984, CERI has also developed an effective portable seismograph network technology, the Portable Array for Numerical Data Acquisition (PANDA), used for earthquake studies in central Arkansas, the Andes of Argentina, the NMSZ, Hawaii, Taiwan and New Zealand. During a 1991-93 PANDA deployment in the central, most-active part of the NMSZ, abundant small earthquakes were located with very high 3-D spatial resolution, revealing a complex pattern of active faults in the source zone of the sequence of great earthquakes in 1811-12. Meanwhile, PANDA projects overseas are building fruitful partnerships with foreign institutions for investigating the nature of crustal deformation in several important earthquake-prone regions. However, partners who supply the large personnel requirements of these projects are needed.

Meanwhile, CERI seeks to understand the puzzling absence of all but the most minor topographic manifestations of NMSZ earthquakes. Trenches and pits in the upper few meters of soft Mississippi flood-plain sediments reveal widespread and complex earthquake-generated soil disruptions throughout the NMSZ. At the surface the ubiquitous "sand blows" are recognized especially in plowed fields; below the plow zone are myriad fractures in soft sediments through which liquified sands flowed to the surface during episodes of strong earthquake shaking. Datable sand eruptions of the 1811-12 earthquake episode were recognized initially; eruptions which occurred during prehistoric earthquakes are being identified only by refining and blending techniques from geology, archaeology and soil science. The evolving multi-disciplinary process, now joined by investigators from several institutions, is beginning to unravel the earthquake history of the region, putting the present earthquake hazard in clearer perspective.

More recently, CERI has initiated direct measurements of contemporary NMSZ deformation by reference to signals from Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites. In 1993 twenty new geodetic benchmarks were installed to supplement an old National Geodetic Survey network, and a program of frequent measurements was begun by CERI. Geodetic leveling undertaken by CERI teams will also detect vertical crustal movements in critical areas of the NMSZ. Three continuously-measuring GPS receiver stations will also be installed shortly. Uncertain indications of regional strain as rapid as on the San Andreas fault are to be clarified by the new measurement program. GPS capability for worldwide geodetic measurements is also being exploited by CERI with partner institutions to measure mountain-building movements in the Andes of South America.

CERI's engineering faculty and their students are deeply involved in assessing regional earthquake hazards and the potential for earthquake damage to lifelines (electric, gas and water distribution facilities) and critical structures (several hundred bridges, hospitals, schools, fire stations) throughout western Tennessee and northeastern Arkansas. Earthquake hazards for University campus buildings have also been evaluated. A soil testing laboratory and a large data base on engineering properties of Mid-South soils compiled at CERI are used in many sponsored projects and serve information needs of private engineering in the region.

CERI is now well known for a thorough, long-term integrated study of the earthquakes in relatively stable continental areas of the world led by Director of Research, Arch Johnston. The New Madrid earthquakes, the 1886 Charleston, SC earthquake, and the disasterous Latur, India earthquake of September 29, 1993 are examples of earthquakes not explained by the modern theory of the earth's drifting crustal plates. They represent a rather poorly understood but growing threat of rare, destructive events in many countries not known for repeated historic earthquake disasters. Learning more about this phenomenon should affect planning practices for critical facilities in eastern North America and other large areas of the world.

Publications, Presentations, Professional Service and Recognition.

Between 1977 and 1994, 217 peer reviewed reports and articles authored by CERI faculty, staff and students were published. About 12% of these appear in foreign publications. A list is available on request. New publications now number about 40 per year. The same CERI authors are making a much larger number of oral presentations per year at scientific and engineering conferences and meetings in the U.S. and abroad.

Several CERI faculty members have received professional awards, have delivered numerous invited talks, and serve professional societies as editors, convenors, directors, and officers. Of particular note, CERI Research Director Arch Johnston has served on seven national and international committees and commissions concerned with earthquake hazards and has testified five times before Congress on this subject.

Degree Programs

Graduate students in geophysics and civil engineering join their faculty advisors in all research projects and contribute strongly to published results. Through June 1994, degrees granted to CERI students numbered 37 Masters degrees in geophysics, seven Masters degrees in earthquake engineering, and one PhD in earthquake engineering. Twenty-four Masters students in geophysics and engineering are now enrolled. Six students are now enrolled in the geophysics doctoral program begun in September 1992; two are expected to graduate in 1995.

Public Service

Supplying information and responding to inquiries by government agencies, professional organizations, churches, schools, civic groups and the general public is the concern of a full-time CERI Resource Center manager, assisted by faculty, staff and students. Through mailings, workshops, and responding to inquiries, CERI is the main source of technical information on earthquakes and earthquake hazards forthe Central U. S. Earthquake Consortium (CUSEC) a seven-state compact, the Memphis-Shelby County Emergency Management Agency, the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, the Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division, and corresponding entities in other states. Insurance and construction industries are important private users of CERI information.A CERI Weekly Earthquake Summary goes by mail, fax and e-mail to 58 recipients. Information and reports are provided to the local and national news media regarding earthquake hazards, New Madrid earthquakes and destructive earthquakes elsewhere in the U.S. and the world. Resource material on earthquakes is supplied to teachers. Over the 10-year period, the Resource Center has provided earthquake information to more than 90% of the public and private schools of Shelby County. Through about 100 yearly visits to or from school science classes, the Resource Center manager also enriches earth science curricula in Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi and Kentucky.

During the Iben Browning episode of 1990, CERI was the main regional source of earthquake information: over 12,000 requests for information packets were filled directly; copiers in schools, businesses, and public agencies multiplied the impact of this information; dozens of media interviews were granted by CERI staff members and dozens of personal visits were made to schools, civic groups, agencies; four CERI phone lines were busy for weeks answering earthquake questions. Filling the information vacuum during the period of intense public concern had a permanent impact on public awareness and understanding of regional earthquake hazards.

In addition, engineering investigations under contracts with public agencies of Tennessee and Arkansas (utilities, DOT, etc) are the part of the sponsored research program which provides information most directly to the user community.

In 1985 and 1993, the CERI charter was renewed unanimously by the Tennessee Legislature under the Sunset Law.

Summary and Outlook

CERI has added much to the knowledge and awareness of earthquakes and earthquake hazards of the New Madrid zone. Faculty and staff expertise focuses closely on disciplines related to earthquake hazards. Within this framework, diverse technologies afford new research opportunities, while the established scientific and engineering program is producing new information used in private and public plans for mitigating earthquake hazards and is providing sound graduate training in the earth and engineering sciences to an international community of students.

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Last modified: Dec 15, 2005