When the ground shakes, Gilroy Gardens records the movement.
The horticultural-themed park, formerly known as Bonfante
Gardens, has added a large seismograph to one of their four
learning sheds. Created to educate school children as well as the
public, the four learning sheds include a geology shed, a weather
station shed, a trees shed and a circus trees shed.
When the ground shakes, Gilroy Gardens records the movement.
The horticultural-themed park, formerly known as Bonfante Gardens, has added a large seismograph to one of their four learning sheds. Created to educate school children as well as the public, the four learning sheds include a geology shed, a weather station shed, a trees shed and a circus trees shed.
The seismograph which was installed last fall was donated by Jan Froom. The need to see how earthquakes affected people near their homes, prompted several amateur seismologists, including Froom to install seismographs in public areas. Located across from the Pinnacles Rock Maze, learning shed No. 1 contains information about the San Andreas Fault, the Pinnacles National Monument, rock formation and the seismograph.
“Having a seismograph associated with the Pinnacles just seemed like a natural,” Froom said. The seismograph was installed at Gilroy Gardens after Froom mentioned to Bob Kraemer, former president of the board of Gilroy Gardens, that he owned a seismograph.
“The devices themselves are very simple, simple devices. They are something the average person can build,” Froom said. He began building seismographs in the early 1980s.
“When my daughter was going to Rod Kelly, we put one in the classroom,” Froom said. Mounted on the wall, the seismograph recorded everything from basketballs outside the classroom to earthquakes. A second seismograph installed at South Valley Middle School reported the vibrations of trains and highway traffic.
“What’s neat about the seismograph is that it’s active,” said Celia McCormick, the Gilroy Garden’s Learning Shed Educational Consultant. McCormick designed the themes and topics of each learning shed, working with artist Amanda Chojnacke to design shed graphics and collaborating with the Pinnacles to design and frame posters on one wall of the shed.
The seismograph at Gilroy Gardens records everything from the major earthquake in Chile to local earthquakes. At Gilroy Gardens, the instrument records “ocean waves at Monterey and Santa Cruz when it’s stormy,” said Froom. “When it’s very windy you can see the wind.”
According to docent coordinator, Shelly Wilcox, Froom “had the seismograph but he actually made it larger” and consequently “he had to do a lot of tweaking.” Most drums are about one foot wide and record about three days worth of vibrations. Froom altered this one to write on to a three foot by four foot drum so that it would record about 18 days worth of data. The seismograph is a “1950s instrument, so it’s cantankerous” Froom said. The “hardest part out there was getting the pen working.” This took two or three weeks.
Now installed, the seismograph is drawing visitors into the learning sheds.
“The kids are getting a big kick out of seeing it,” Wilcox said.
When the pen runs across the drum and “you can see it and can’t explain why – that’s the magic,” Froom said.
