Establishing Acceptable Ground Motion at the TDA Metrology Laboratory, Austin, Texas

In August 2001, researchers at the Bureau of Economic Geology (Bureau) conducted a geophysical investigation for the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) to establish vibration characteristics at the Metrology Laboratory (Figure 1) for future comparison with proposed sites. We employed a vibration-monitoring instrument to establish ground-motion characteristics at the laboratory under a representative range of conditions. Tasks included recording ground motion at the laboratory, analyzing recorded data to determine velocities, accelerations, and frequency characteristics in the vertical and horizontal directions, and comparing ground motion recorded inside and outside the laboratory under representative conditions.