Seismic signature of turbulence during the 2017 Oroville Dam spillway erosion crisis

Goodling, Phillip J.; Lekic, Vedran; Prestegaard, Karen

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-6-351-2018

Articles | Volume 6, issue 2

https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-6-351-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue:

From process to signal – advancing environmental...

https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-6-351-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 6, issue 2

Research article

|

09 May 2018

Research article |

| 09 May 2018

Seismic signature of turbulence during the 2017 Oroville Dam spillway erosion crisis

Phillip J. Goodling, Vedran Lekic, and Karen Prestegaard

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Final revised paper (published on 09 May 2018)
Supplement to the final revised paper
Preprint (discussion started on 02 Jan 2018)
Supplement to the preprint

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

RC1: 'Review', Victor Tsai, 30 Jan 2018
RC2: 'Goodling et al review', Anonymous Referee #2, 30 Jan 2018
AC1: 'Authors' Response to Reviewer's Comments', Phillip Goodling, 14 Mar 2018

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

AR by Phillip Goodling on behalf of the Authors (14 Mar 2018) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (04 Apr 2018) by Florent Gimbert

AR by Phillip Goodling on behalf of the Authors (05 Apr 2018) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (06 Apr 2018) by Florent Gimbert

ED: Publish as is (08 Apr 2018) by Tom Coulthard (Editor)

AR by Phillip Goodling on behalf of the Authors (10 Apr 2018)

Short summary

The Oroville Dam flood control spillway suffered catastrophic erosion damage in February 2017. We find that seismic waves recorded by a seismometer 2 km away contain information about the flow turbulence and damage location in the spillway. We show that enhanced turbulence due to spillway damage excites louder seismic waves at a given flow rate, which can be used to detect the onset and track the migration of erosion damage. The methods we use could be used to monitor other structures or rivers.