Reaching Out: Educating Specialists and the Public on Earthquake Monitoring

While installing our seismic network in Malawi, we interacted with everyone from scientists to schoolteachers, and journalists to villagers. The opportunity to provide information and education to Malawians has been the most rewarding aspect of our effort. We trained local scientists and technicians on seismic equipment and data analysis, and educated the public on earthquakes and earthquake monitoring both in person and via media interviews. The Malawi Geological Survey Department (MGSD) prompted our visit by requesting assistance in monitoring aftershocks, and we hope that this temporary seismic deployment will empower them to obtain resources and training for a permanent seismic network.

Because we deployed our seismic stations near schools, clinics and other centers of village life, we met a wide spectrum of Malawians. Everyone we spoke with expressed interest in our undertaking and wanted to know more about the chindindindis (earthquakes in Tumbuka). In the village of Mpata, 5 miles west of Karonga, a crowd gathered around a laptop balanced on the hood of our 4×4 as Jim showed them aftershocks in newly downloaded data; the audience peppered him with pertinent questions about the East African Rift and earthquakes beneath Lake Malawi. Curious policeman looked on as I retrieved seismic records from a station positioned near a checkpoint ~10 miles north of Karonga, inquiring when and where the next earthquake would occur. Science teachers in Mlare helped us install a station near their school and received an impromptu lesson in plate tectonics and seismology.

Journalists from newspapers, radio stations and national TV programs also interviewed us during our visit, which allowed us to communicate with a larger audience about possible causes of the earthquakes and the benefits of monitoring them.

We worked side by side with scientists and technicians from the MGSD every day of our visit. They taught us local geology, local customs, and local language, and made our joint endeavor possible by facilitating contacts with national and regional officials. In return, we brought them seismic monitoring equipment, helped them deploy it, and taught them new techniques for analyzing the resulting data. Although the MGSD is charged with monitoring earthquakes within the Malawi rift valley, their efforts are severely hampered by paucity of data and lack of training. Only two seismic stations exist in Malawi (provided by Africa Array), and university-level courses in seismology are almost non-existent. The data and training of MGSD employees provided by our temporary deployment following the Karonga earthquakes will help mitigate these problems in the short term; we hope that this experience will equip the MGSD with the ammunition to argue for more national and international resources for seismic monitoring in Malawi over the longer term.