The Southern Arizona Seismic Observatory (SASO) is an organized research group in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Arizona. SASO scientists conduct research on different aspects of seismology, fault mechanics, active tectonics, and geodynamcis. SASO operates the IRIS/NSN very broadband seismic station TUC , which is located in the Santa Catalina mountains. The sation is part of the Global Seismic Network (GSN) which monitors natural and man-made seismic signals over the entire Earth.

SASO's membership includes faculty, researchers, graduate, and undergraduate students from several University of Arizona departments including the Department of Geosciences.

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The photo on the left is of the portable broadband station PICH in Bolivia, South America. Station PICH was part of the BANJO portable seismic deployment.

The photo on the right shows the fault scarp of the Landers earthquake (M=7.2). The photo was taken in June, 1992. In this location, the fault scarp had approximately 6 feet of vertical displacement and 18 feet of horizontal displacement.

The seismic waveform is from a Mw=6.6 earthquake under Peru (120 km) that occurred on May 2, 1995. It is a recording of the vertical component of ground motion recorded at TUC 5350 km (48.2 degrees) away. The actual displacment of the sensor is on the order of nanometers (1e-9 meters). Seismologists use a travel time curve to identify the phases (energy arrivals) labeled in blue.

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