Alain Michaud's web page

    Welcome to my personal web page. I put the daily updates at the top. However this approach makes it very difficult to maintain a proper table of content, since the page has no structure. Then I try to keep the page short and it should be easy to scroll all the way to the bottom and if necessary follow one of the links. At this time there are only three topics: Seismology, Amateur Radio and Radiation monitoring. The introduction is located at the bottom. Have a good reading.

Twenty Years Ago

On december 26, 2004, a Magnitude M-9 earthquake struck the West coast of Northern Sumatra, indonesia and created a monster Tsunami that killed 200,000 people all around the Indian Ocean. See the article on this event. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake_and_tsunami


Recent Seismogram

This is the recent raw output of our seismograph station. please see the Seismology section for a list of earthquakes detected earlier. Please note the date is indicated on the top left of the graph and the time is the universal time UTC.  

Most
          recent seismogram    


Amateur Seismology

Seismology logo     I am located in Quebec city, Canada. (FN46IS)  Recently I built a seismometer,  which I operate in the basement of my house. It took 22 months to design and build the instrument. Not a geologist, I had to read documents and make many choices for my first design. The instrument is in continuous operation since February 2021.  It has captured some vibrations from distant  earthquakes as well as one "local" event (M3.9). See below the seismograms for some events that I could identify using USGS Wilber.

2024-09-17 ML5.1 Western Texas.

2024-09-15 Mww6.5 Queen Charlotte Islands Region.

2024-09-01 Mwr3.8 Southern Quebec, Canada.

2024-08-17 Mww7.0 Off East Coast Of Kamchatka.

2024-08-09 More local noise.

2024-08-08 mww7.1 Kyushu, Japan.

2024-07-19 Construction work.

2024-07-11 mww6.4 Vancouver Island, Canada Region.

2024-06-28 mww7.2 Near Coast Of Peru.

2024-05-12 mww6.4 Near Coast Of Chiapas, Mexico.

2024-04-18 Mww5.6 Turkey and Mww5.6 Gulf Of California.

2024-04-05 Mwr4.8 New Jersey.

2024-04-02 2024-04-02 mww7.4 Taiwan.

2024-02-03 ML5.1 Oklahoma.

2024-01-22 Mww7.0 Kyrgyzstan-Xinjiang Border Reg.

2024-01-12 Unidentified.

2024-01-01 mww7.5 Near West Coast Of Honshu, Japan

2023 Archive

2022 Archive

2021 Archive

AM1 Seismometer

Introduction


Radiation monitoring

Radiation
        monitoring logo

I have a Geiger counter in continuous operation. Its output is periodically reported to the radmon.org surveillance network. You can see the background radiation level on the map. My station is labelled amichaud in the list. However you can go directly to my (hourly) report and graph on their site by following the link here.

Count rate below 20 CPM is normal for my staion.

Unlike other stations in this network, the numbers that is upload from my station represent the number of counts per minutes (CPM) that has already been averaged over a period of one hour. I only upload one number every hour in order to save network bandwidth. I believe this is the reason why the long time plots have a different look for this station.       


2024-09-17 ML5.1 Western Texas.

Activity for 2024-09-17

COORD: 32.411 °N, 102.057 °W, 2024-09-17 00:49:42 UTC, 6.1279 km, ML5.1 Western Texas.

2024-09-15 Mww6.5 Queen Charlotte Islands Region..

Activity for 2024-09-15

COORD: 51.6041 °N, 130.6214 °W, 2024-09-15 22:22:48 UTC, 10.0 km, Mww6.5 Queen Charlotte Islands Region.

2024-09-01 Mwr3.8 Southern Quebec, Canada.

Activity for 2024-09-01

COORD: 46.0438 °N, 72.7553 °W, 2024-09-01 09:43:36 UTC, 1.108 km, Mwr3.8 Southern Quebec, Canada.

This is the first local microseism that we record since this station has been put is oeration three years ago.

2024-08-17 Mww7.0 Off East Coast Of Kamchatka.

Activity for 2024-08-17

COORD: 52.9242 °N, 160.1413 °E, 2024-08-17 19:10:26 UTC, 29.0 km, Mww7.0 Off East Coast Of Kamchatka.

Please note the very nice single line plot (19h00 UTC) showing first the P (pressure) wave followed by the S (shear) wave followed at last by the Surface wave.

2024-08-09 More local noise.

Activity for 2024-08-09

Please note more construction work today.

2024-08-08 mww7.1 Kyushu, Japan.

Activity for 2024-08-08

COORD: 31.7191 °N, 131.5271 °E, 2024-08-08 07:42:55 UTC, 25.0 km, mww7.1 Kyushu.

Please note more construction work later this morning.

2024-07-19 Construction work.

Activity for
        2024-07-19

This is no earthquake! They are opening the street in front of my house. What you see is a dozen of loaders and bakhoes running back and forth for the whole morning that day.

2024-07-11 mww6.4 Vancouver Island, Canada Region.

Activity for
        2024-07-11

COORD: 48.8127 °N, 128.7254 °W, 2024-07-11 15:08:47 UTC, 10.0 km, mww6.4 Vancouver Island, Canada Region.

2024-06-28 mww7.2 Near Coast Of Peru.

Activity for
        2024-06-28

COORD: 15.8106 °S, 74.4447 °W, 2024-06-28 05:36:37 UTC, 27.985 km, mww7.2 Near Coast Of Peru.

2024-05-12 mww6.4 Near Coast Of Chiapas, Mexico.

Activity for
        2024-05-12

COORD: 14.4518 °N, 92.363 °W 2024-05-12 11:39:14 UTC, 75.426 km, mww6.4 Near Coast Of Chiapas, Mexico.

2024-04-18 Mww5.6 Turkey and Mww5.6 Gulf Of California.

Activity for
        2024-04-18

We have two events happening simualtenously.

COORD: 40.0043 °N, 35.9763 °E, 2024-04-18 15:11:25 UTC, 10.0 km, Mww5.6, Turkey.

COORD: 26.2173 °N, 110.5083 °W, 2024-04-18 15:12:38 UTC, 10.0 km, Mww5.6, Gulf Of California.

2024-04-05 Mwr4.8 New Jersey.

Activity for
        2024-04-05

A very unusual earthquake in New-York did not do any serious damage. During an agitated debate at the united nations organization, someone accused another ambassador "You make the earth shake."

COORD: 40.7033 °N, 74.7581 °W, 2024-04-05 14:23:20 UTC, 4.7 km, Mwr4.8, New Jersey.

2024-04-02 mww7.4 Taiwan.

Activity for
        2024-04-03

A major earthquake striked taiwan coast, killing at least nine and injured almost a thousand people.

COORD: 23.819 °N, 121.5616 °E, 2024-04-02 23:58:11 UTC, 34.75 km, mww7.4, Taiwan.

2024-02-03 ML5.1 Oklahoma.

Activity for
        2024-02-03

COORD: 35.534333 °N, 96.763833 °W, 2024-02-03 05:24:28 UTC, 3.0 km, ML5.1 Oklahoma..

2024-01-22 Mww7.0 Kyrgyzstan-Xinjiang Border Reg.

Activity for
        2024-01-22

COORD: 41.2689 °N, 78.649 °E, 2024-01-22 18:09:04 UTC, 13.0 km, Mww7.0 Kyrgyzstan-Xinjiang Border Reg..

2024-01-12 Unidentified

We could not find the focal point of this event.

Activity for
        2024-01-12

2024-01-01 mww7.5 Near West Coast Of Honshu, Japan.

COORD: 37.4976 °N, 137.2416 °E, 2024-01-01 07:10:09 UTC 10.0 km mww7.5 Near West Coast Of Honshu, Japan.

Activity for
        2024-01-01


AM1 Seismometer


/AM1/pictures/DSC08344.JPG
AM1/pictures/DSC08345.JPG


This is the completed seismometer. It was put in operation in january 2021. A description will be posted here.



AM1/AM4.gif



Introduction

Hi,
    this is just one of the millions and zillions personal web pages that you find on the internet. Quite frankly, one of those pages that nobody reads. I know what I am talking about. For about ten years I had a similar page and I cannot remember having it cited more than two times. This was the good old days when you would put some keywords in the code several times in hope that the search engines will increase your page rank.  Also I had a pact with my friend: I would put a link to his page, and he would put a similar link to  my page.  Both of us, we would crack the algorithm...  Well, not quite.  When I put my exact name plus five outstanding words from the page in the search engine, at best a link to my page would appear among the first ten results.  The bottom line is if you expect fame and wealth from a personal web page, then you should consider funny videos or conspiracy theories. You get nothing of that sort in this page.

    This page is really just a notebook to myself.  I have several hobbies, all sort of interest and sometimes I feel that I should take notes.  Well I do take notes.  I have a notebook that no one care about. "Notes to myself" is obviously just an excuse.  Let's just say that sometimes I wish I would show my notes.  To the world...  And we are back to get rich-and-famous concept again. There is no escape, our existence  is linked to how we are perceived by others, and that's okay.

This page is a personal web page related to SEISMOLOGY as a HOBBY.  This means that  this page has not been peer reviewed, as well as it is not endorsed by any official or commercial organization. In effect, it has no scientific value!

I am a retired electrical engineer, and my skills are related to building and using high precision measuring instruments, building atomic clocks, and tunable lasers. I also participated to fundamental research in laser spectroscopy, a physics science called "laser cooling and trapping", and also "Bose-Enstein Condensation". I also designed and built "Atomic Clocks". These are high performance time-keepers. I built several prototypes of those. Finally I was responsable for a Microwave Metrology Laboratory. I also published my research in scientific journals.

As I just explained, I had no formal training or experience in geology or earth sciences.  I am only an AMATEUR in this field! If you are uncertain, please do not use the information presented on this page.

On the opposite side, I should mention that I do not receive any amount of money and I do not comment on any organization, any other result  or any comercial product. If you find any indication of the opposite please accept my apology and let me know so I can quickly correct the mistake.

My objective is show that it is possible to build  functional measuring instruments using modest resources, while having fun!