{"id":25,"date":"2011-03-21T01:38:25","date_gmt":"2011-03-21T01:38:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jaimesnyder.com\/visualforest\/?p=25"},"modified":"2011-03-21T02:00:34","modified_gmt":"2011-03-21T02:00:34","slug":"violent-change-reflected-in-a-single-line-of-ink","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.jaimesnyder.com\/visualforest\/?p=25","title":{"rendered":"A single continuous line of ink"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last weekend we took a trip to Ithaca’s Museum of the Earth.\u00c2\u00a0 Just past the exhibit about corn (oddly fascinating), was a seismograph machine.\u00c2\u00a0 This complex device is used to recognize and measure global seismic activity, documenting and recording movement within the earth’s tectonic plates using an essentially simple graphic interface.<\/p>\n

Although today data is captured in digital form, seismographs have also traditionally generated ink drawings that can be analyzed after a seismic event to determine the direction, duration and intensity of tectonic activity.\u00c2\u00a0 To create this visual record, a piece of paper is wrapped around a drum. A very small and delicate pen rests very lightly on the surface of the paper. The cylinder rotates at a very slow rate of speed (see video below). When a tremor occurs, the pen tip records the duration and severity of the movement by leaving a jagged trail on the paper.<\/p>\n

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The seismograph machine at the Museum of the Earth in Ithaca, NY.<\/p><\/div>\n

As it trails around the drum, the pen also slowly moves down the length of the cylinder, preventing the tip from writing over previous data. By the time the barrel has made one complete rotation (1 hour for the machine in this video), the pen tip has moved down the barrel by about an inch from its original position. The result is a long line of ink that spirals around the cylinder and down the page, recording any seismic activity that is registered by the equipment.<\/p>\n