I want to thank everyone who responded via email or phone to my request
for information about seismic monitoring.  Thanks to your information
and advice we have managed to survive the first onslaught of test pile
driving unscathed.  What a relief!

For others who may also be interested in this sort of information: a
very kind colleague forwarded to me a copy of the Swiss Standards, which
are the holy grail of vibration information (at least in my experience).
I will be happy to email a copy of these tables to anyone who is
interested.  The summary of key data is this:

Source M - background vibrations (construction, traffic, etc.)
Source S - blasting operations ('peak' vibrations - high drama, such as
pile driving)

For museum objects, the highest recommended threshold for M is .12
in/sec.  For S the recommended range is .31 to .47 in/sec.

We never came anywhere close to .31 during pile driving.

It is my recent experience that humans will freak out at the .08 and
higher readings - this means we worry a lot more than necessary, a lot
sooner than necessary.  But at least our early warning systems are in
place.

If you'd like a copy of the tables, please let me know.

Thanks again,

Lindsey Richardson
Curator of Collections
Boston Children's Museum
300 Congress Street
Boston, MA  02210
Tel. 617 426 6500 x366
Fax 617 426 1944
www.bostonchildrensmuseum.org
 

-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Carol Ely
Sent: Friday, May 05, 2006 1:56 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [MUSEUM-L] seismic monitoring

Also be aware of shifts in the ground - drainage can change. We had to
deal with blasting for housing construction nearby a few years back, and
a blasting study was done first. It turned out that there was no damage
to collections or to historic buildings, but deep changes in the bedrock
changed groundwater flows - for the better for our damp basement!

Carol Ely
Executive Director
Historic Locust Grove
Louisville, KY

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