California Quakes Provide Testing for Venus Tech

Jun 23, 2021 | Daily Space, Earth, Spacecraft, Venus

IMAGE: Four “heliotrope” balloons were flown near Ridgecrest, California, after a series of earthquakes rattled the region in July 2019. By attaching barometers to the balloons, researchers from JPL and Caltech hoped to detect the sound of one of the aftershocks. CREDIT: NASA/JPL-Caltech

This story is one where I feel like I was part of the experiment. 

In July 2019, after attending a star party in Joshua Tree, I spent the Fourth of July holiday with dear friends in Los Angeles. On the morning of July 4, the house we were in, poised ever so delicately on the side of a rather steep hill, started to shake, rattle, and roll. I called out, “Earthquake!”, and for about thirty seconds we all kind of went, “Huh, this is lasting a while.” And then, in proper L.A. fashion, we went back to getting ready for brunch. 

That magnitude 6.4 earthquake was part of a chain of quakes that would include a 7.1 trembler on July 6, which I didn’t feel because I was on the Transformers ride at Universal. While this earthquake is just a side note on a pleasant summer trip for me, for folks closer to the epicenter in Ridgecrest, CA, these quakes meant a lot of clean up and a fair amount of repair work; and for scientists at Caltech and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, these quakes meant a chance to test balloon-carried earthquake detectors they hope to send to Venus. 

While we normally detect quakes by how they literally shake the ground, this airborne sensor instead looks for slight changes in air pressure. On July 22, with their sensors at altitudes between 11-15 miles, they successfully detected low-frequency sound waves caused by aftershocks. This high altitude (well above commercial air traffic and in the land of weather balloons) makes observing earthquakes needlessly complicated, but on Venus, this exact same technique will allow scientists to study Venus quakes without melting their detectors – a factor that makes all the complications more than worth it.

More Information

NASA JPL press release

The First Detection of an Earthquake From a Balloon Using Its Acoustic Signature,” Quentin Brissaud et al., 2021 May 20, Geophysical Research Letters

0 Comments

Got Podcast?

365 Days of Astronomy LogoA community podcast.

URL * RSS * iTunes

Astronomy Cast LogoTake a facts-based journey.

URL * RSS * iTunes * YouTube

Visión Cósmica LogoVisión Cósmica

URL * RSS

Escape Velocity Space News LogoEscape Velocity Space News
New website coming soon!
YouTube

Become a Patron!
CosmoQuest and all its programs exist thanks the generous donations of people like you! Become a patron & help plan for the future while getting exclusive content.