Embayment Seismic Excitation Experiment (ESEE)

In 2002, Professor Charles Langston led a Embayment Seismic Excitation Experiment (ESEE) using active sources to study the strong ground motion from explosion sources and wave field propagation in the upper Mississippi embayment. This project was sponsored by the United State Geological Survey (USGS) and the Center for Earthquake Research and Information (CERI), The University of Memphis.          

Eight broadband stations (CMG40T) and a linear array of eighteen K2 stations (Episensor) were installed from October 24 to October 31, 2002. Blast 1 was set off at latitude 35.46ºN and longitude 90.5652°W near Marked Tree, Arkansas, on October 30, 2002 @3:40:0.025 (UTC) [the 25 milliseconds coming from a slightly-delayed blasting cap as per the blasters info]. Blast 2 was at site of Latitude 36.33212°N and Longitude 89.58718°W on October 31 @04:00.025 (UTC) near Mooring, Tennessee. During the same time period, another one broadband (CMG40T) was installed at southern Marked Tree, Arkansas. Afterwards, eight CMG40T were relocated to Mooring, Tennessee for the ambient noise study on November 25 and 26, 2002.

The network code was assigned by the Federation of Digital Seismographic Network (FDSN) as "XS" for the ESEE study. Examples of related publications are as follows.

Langston, C.A., P. Bodin, C. Powell, M. Withers, S. Horton, and W. Mooney, Explosion source strong ground motion in the Mississippi embayment, Bull. Seism. Soc. Am., 96,1038-1054 (2006).

Langston, C.A., Wave gradiometry in two dimensions, Bull. Seism. Soc. Am., 97, 401-416 (2007).

Langston, C.A. Wave-field continuation and decomposition for passive seismic imaging under deep unconsolidated sediments, Bull. Seism. Soc. Am., 101, 2176-2190, doi: 10.1785/0120100299 (2011).

Langston, C.A., S.-C. C. Chiu, Z. Lawrence, P. Bodin, and S. Horton.   Array observations of microseismic noise and the nature of H/V in the Mississippi embayment, Bull. Seism. Soc. Am., 99, doi:10.1785/0120080189 (2009).