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posted 11/16/01

Researchers Call for Seismographic Stations in Urban Areas


Writing in the November 20, 2001, issue of Eos, published by the American Geophysical Union, seismologists from Columbia’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory outline the sequence of seismographic recordings on that tragic day, and argue that vibrations recorded on September 11 were of a magnitude thought to be too low to cause structural damage to buildings, especially in the northeast region of the United States.

However, the authors add that because there were no seismographic stations in or even near the World Trade Center, it is impossible to know for sure that the ground-shaking did not have any impact on the neighboring buildings. Ultimately, they say, urban officials should consider the importance of placing seismographic stations in high-density urban areas.

Seismic recordings on E-W component at Palisades, NY for events at World Trade Center (WTC) on September 11, distance 34 km. Three hours of continuous data shown starting at 08:40 EDT (12:40 UTC). Two largest signals were generated by collapses of Towers 1 and 2. Expanded views of first impact and first collapse shown in red. Displacement amplitude spectra in nm-s from main impacts and collapses shown at right. Note broadband nature of spectra for collapses 1 and 2, whereas relatively periodicmotions for impacts 1 & 2.

"Our recordings were made at considerable distance," said Won-Young Kim, who is in charge of seismological network operations for Lamont-Doherty. "However, plans are pending for an Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS) that calls for placing seismic instruments in such urban areas as New York City. The tragic events of September 11 show that such instrumentation can serve a purpose that sometimes transcends strict earthquake applications."

The paper was authored by 12 researchers at Lamont, including Kim; Lynn Sykes; Klaus Jacob, Paul Richards and Arthur Lerner-Lam. Lerner-Lam is the director of Columbia’s new Center for Hazards and Risk Research.

Lerner-Lam explained what happened once the planes hit the World Trade Center, and how they resulted in relatively small seismographic readings.

"The energy contained in the amount of fuel combusted was the equivalent to the energy released by 240 tons of TNT," said Lerner-Lam. "This energy was absorbed by the buildings and produced the observed fireballs, but did not immediately cause the collapse. During the collapse, most of the energy of the falling debris was absorbed by the towers and the neighboring structures, converting them into rubble and dust or causing other damage– but not causing significant ground shaking."

Seismographic recordings of the tower collapses were recorded in five states, as far away as 428 kilometers [266 miles] in Lisbon, New Hampshire. Lamont’s home station, in Palisades, New York, is located above the Hudson River, 34 kilometers [21 miles] from downtown Manhattan, where the towers stood. The aircraft impacts registered local magnitude (ML) 0.9 and 0.7, indicating minimal earth shaking as a result. The subsequent collapse of the towers, on the contrary, registered magnitudes of 2.1 and 2.3, comparable to the small earthquake that occurred beneath the east side of Manhattan on January 17, 2001.

The Lamont seismographs established the following timeline: 8:46:26 a.m. EDT [1240 UTC] Aircraft impact - north tower, Magnitude 0.9; 9:02:54 a.m. EDT [1302 UTC] Aircraft impact - south tower, Magnitude 0.7; 9:59:04 a.m. EDT [1359 UTC] Collapse - south tower, Magnitude 2.1; 10:28:31 a.m. EDT [1428 UTC] Collapse - north tower, Magnitude 2.3.

In addition, the seismic waves were short-period surface waves, meaning they traveled within the upper few kilometers of the Earth’s crust. They were caused by the interaction between the ground and the building foundation, which transmits the energy from the impacts and the collapses.

The authors also noted that as seen in television images, the fall of the towers was similar to that of a pyroclastic flow down a volcano, where hot dust and chunks of material move in a dust/mud matrix down the volcano’s slope. The collapse of the WTC generated such a flow, though without the high temperatures common in volcanic flows.

The Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory operates 34 seismographic stations in the northeast in collaboration with several institutions. Network operations are supported by the United States Geological Survey. The network is part of the Advanced National Seismic System, a national seismological monitoring initiative being implemented through a USGS-university partnership.

The paper by Won-Young Kim, Lynn R. Sykes, J.H. Armitage, J.K. Xie, Klaus H. Jacob, Paul G. Richards, M. West, F. Waldhauser, J. Armbruster, L. Seeber, W.X. Du, and Arthur Lerner-Lam, "Seismic Waves Generated by Aircraft Impacts and Building Collapses at World Trade Center, New York City," appears in Eos, Volume 82, number 47 (20 November 2001), page 565.

Journalists may request a copy of the paper from Harvey Leifert, hleifert@agu.org, specifying a pdf or fax version. Please include your name, publication, postal address, phone, fax, and email address. There is no embargo.

To speak with any of the researchers listed above, please contact Stacey Gander, Administrative Assistant, at Columbia’s Center for Hazards and Risk Research: (845) 365-8909 or staceyv@ldeo.columbia.edu.

Web site for the Lamont-Doherty Cooperative Seismographic Network:


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