CCTV footage captures video of an earthquake fault in motion

Terrifying. I program automated vibration analysis for blasting, and a very powerful explosive blast will feature particle velocities (the direct corollary for power) in the single-digit in/s range (~0.02-0.13 m/s) . This peak particle velocity is 20-150x higher than the peaks we see from the most powerful blasts we measure, if they're at all qualitatively comparable.

And of course, the earthquake energy source is many magnitudes larger and much, much further away, deep in the crust, with the wavefront already having passed through miles of solid rock. We measure blasts from at most a few hundred meters away.

Re: CCTV footage captures video of an earthquake fault in motion

#5

Post by andrewflnr » Sat, Jul 26, 2025, 4:43 AM UTC

ranger_danger wrote: post #2

Isn't this news several months old?

It seems like the analysis is the new part.

Re: CCTV footage captures video of an earthquake fault in motion

#6

Post by kristopolous » Sat, Jul 26, 2025, 4:44 AM UTC

I know nothing so help me here. Why is this so rare? Aren't earthquakes, cameras, and monitoring of them pretty common?

Re: CCTV footage captures video of an earthquake fault in motion

#7

Post by card_zero » Sat, Jul 26, 2025, 4:44 AM UTC

netbioserror wrote: post #4

Terrifying. I program automated vibration analysis for blasting, and a very powerful explosive blast will feature particle velocities (the direct corollary for power) in the single-digit in/s range (~0.02-0.13 m/s) . This peak particle velocity is 20-150x higher than the peaks we see from the most powerful blasts we measure, if they're at all qualitatively comparable. And of course, the earthquake energy source is ma…

in/s? Inches per second, or something else? One inch per second is the speed of an excited snail.

Re: CCTV footage captures video of an earthquake fault in motion

#8

Post by irjustin » Sat, Jul 26, 2025, 4:49 AM UTC

kristopolous wrote: post #6

I know nothing so help me here. Why is this so rare? Aren't earthquakes, cameras, and monitoring of them pretty common?

Videos of earthquakes are common enough.

It's the video of the fault line itself fracturing that's so interesting.

We know where the fault lines are, so we generally avoid building anything major near them because... well earthquakes. Hence no other videos of actual fault line fractures (vs general street ones).

Re: CCTV footage captures video of an earthquake fault in motion

#9

Post by csours » Sat, Jul 26, 2025, 5:02 AM UTC

card_zero wrote: post #7

netbioserror wrote: post #4

Terrifying. I program automated vibration analysis for blasting, and a very powerful explosive blast will feature particle velocities (the direct corollary for power) in the single-digit in/s range (~0.02-0.13 m/s) . This peak particle velocity is 20-150x higher than the peaks we see from the most powerful blasts we measure, if they're at all qualitatively comparable. And of course, the earthquake energy source is ma…

in/s? Inches per second, or something else? One inch per second is the speed of an excited snail.

in soil, not air.

Re: CCTV footage captures video of an earthquake fault in motion

#10

Post by card_zero » Sat, Jul 26, 2025, 5:12 AM UTC

csours wrote: post #9

card_zero wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

in/s? Inches per second, or something else? One inch per second is the speed of an excited snail.

in soil, not air.

Yikes, I see.