Grant to Establish Earthquake Observatory at Arkansas University

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock will receive a federal grant to establish an earthquake monitoring center.

The $454,449 grant from the U.S. Department of Interior will establish the Arkansas Seismic Observatory to monitor earthquake activity in the central United States.

UALR Department of Applied Science chairman Haydar Al-Shukri and research assistant professor Hanan Mahdi applied for the grant. They plan to install six seismic stations to improve the monitoring of earthquakes in the state and region.

A ground motion station will also be installed within the New Madrid fault system in northeastern Arkansas. A series of earthquakes along the fault in 1811 and 1812 were among the most violent ever to strike in the U.S.