When a building on Penn State’s University Park campus had a structural issue that forced an evacuation Wednesday afternoon, nearby geoscientists may have captured the moment — on their seismometer.
Andrew Nyblade, an earthquake seismologist in the Department of Geosciences at Penn State, is part of the team that runs a network of seismometers across Pennsylvania. They monitor for earthquakes, seismic events from oil and gas activity such as fracking and waste water disposal, and blasting in mines.
“We record all sorts of seismic events," Nyblade said. "So any kind of ground shaking that’s large enough, of any origin, we record.”
One of those monitors is in the basement of the Deike Building on campus. It can pick up a crowd of people jumping up and down after a touchdown in Beaver Stadium or a blast at a nearby quarry. Or, in this case, the structural event at Penn State’s Susan Welch Liberal Arts Building.
There were reports of the sound of an explosion in the building and a crack that stretches across several floors, according to several media outlets.
Nyblade said he was chatting with colleagues in the political science department who have offices in that building.
“They know I’m a seismologist," he said. "So they said ‘Did you see anything underneath your stations? Did it register?'”
The network manager pulled the data. “And sure enough it looks like there is an event," Nyblade said, later adding it registered as a “microearthquake.”
They would need to confirm the exact timing of the structural event, but it appears to be the same as their seismometer reading.
The building was evacuated, and no one was hurt. The university has not provided many details, but said it appears the damage was caused by a “localized structural issue.”
