Five Years After the Ridgecrest Earthquake Sequence

Rich Data Set

Scientists continue to analyze the rich data set to address key questions in earthquake science, including what factors control the timing and location of aftershocks, and how the ground shakes close to large earthquakes. 

Investigations of the Ridgecrest Sequence have exploited data from seismic networks, geodetic networks, satellites and more. Complementing conventional seismic networks that have grown in sophistication, the scientific community also embraces additional technologies that allow earthquake shaking to be recorded in far greater detail than previously possible. One such technology was borrowed from the oil patch: simple nodal seismometers that have been used for many years to acquire seismic data for industry, primarily oil and gas exploration. These simple instruments have been used increasingly in recent years for scientific investigations of earthquakes and faults.

A nodal seismometer can be installed quickly, literally stuck into the ground, where conventional seismometers are much more expensive, and can take hours to install. Earthquake scientists increasingly use dense deployments of nodals to record earthquakes which creates far more sampling than is possible with conventional networks. Data from nodal deployments were used, for example, to better understand the structure of sub-surface fault zones in the Ridgecrest area.