Part 3: What Data are Presented on the Monitoring Website?

By Charles G. Spencer, Ph.D.

When you access the White Industrials website there is a lot of information presented in the data tables. (http://www.whiteseisclientdata.com/)

First, you need to log in. The current Username is “Star” and the password is “Star2018.” After you click “Submit” you may get confused, because on first appearance it looks like nothing happened.

But, look below the now-blank password block and you will see “Go to Projects.” Click that.

Another screen appears. Click “Select” next to the site ID and name.

You have to select the one for which you want to see data. Once you do, the data table will show the last 15 recorded signals from that seismometer (you can click on previous pages at the bottom to see earlier data).

First of all, there are far more dates (rows) than blasts. Most of the lines are the seismometer sending its daily “heartbeat” (in the “Type” column) telling the home office that the instrument is working. Blast events will have data in all of the columns in the row.
Interestingly, so will large thunderclaps. As of this writing, three events on the tables correlate to the passage of strong thunderstorms (May 20, May 25 [twice] and June 19). The best way to eliminate those from inspection is to look at the PPV. Thunder produces significantly lower PPVs than do blasts.

Here are what the headings on the data table columns mean:
“PPV”: The highest peak particle velocity recorded, along any of the three measured axes.
“Rad”: The PPV of vibrations producing radial (forth-and-back) displacement, in inches per second.
“Ver”: The PPV of vertical (up-and-down) vibrations, in inches per second.
“Tra”: The PPV of transverse (side-to-side) vibrations, in inches per second.
“Air”: The loudness of the blast, in decibels (dB)
“Rad Hz”: The frequency at which the radial PPV was measured
“Ver Hz”: The frequency at which the vertical PPV was measured
“Tra Hz”: The frequency at which the transverse PPV was measured
“Air Hz”: The frequency at which the maximum dB was measured
“Type”: Tells you if it’s the heartbeat or a waveform (event) signal
“Status”: Says “Okay” when an event is recorded properly
“Image”: Takes you to graphs of the seismic data

You will also note some buttons above the table. I will discuss the additional analysis options in Part 4 of this series.

The recent approval by the Missouri Mining Commission for the use of explosives at the Star Excavations site on Quarry Park Road in Lee’s Summit has led to concern on the part of many nearby residents. The Tribune asked Dr. Charles Spencer, a local geological consultant, to provide some basic information on the nature of blasting and its effects. His article will appear over the next four weeks.

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