Join Us for GST’s March Technical talk.
When: Thursday, March 12, 2026 Time: 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM Where: Baxter’s Interurban Grill
Tracking Tornado's on the Ground in Real Time
By Phil Bording
Bad weather sometimes turns into tornados and bad things happen. The Joplin Tornado hit a hospital full force. Weather RADAR shows the tornado but does not always indicate if it is on the ground. In this talk, I work on the idea of using the ground shaking from a tornado and the seismic waves to track the tornado. How much energy is put into the ground from a twisting tree or a building as a 100-foot-wide wind wall full of debris of a tornado passes through or by? What energy form is generated, shear waves, compression waves, Rayleigh Waves? A study of frequency content, ground motion, and energy forces for these moving sources are needed to identify tornado data at multiple seismic sensor locations.
Computer simulation using an elastic wave modeling solver and movies illustrate how this might or might not work....
We’re also looking to plan some upcoming technical talks. If you have suggestions for speakers or topics you’d like to hear this year, please email them to gstulsa@gmail.com.
Our goal remains simple: to share knowledge, exchange experiences, and enjoy time together as a community of geophysicists. We look forward to starting the year with you.
Warm regards, Geophysical Society of Tulsa Council
"Geophysical Society of Tulsa (GST)" is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Oklahoma, P.O. Box 2784, Tulsa, OK 174101
