Hector Mine

In relocating from the East to the West coast of the United States a few years ago, I was immediately struck by the topography. Far less apparent in the old and weathered landscape of the East, the geologic forces that shape the earth thrust themselves into one’s attention in the West. This is nowhere more apparent than when the earth moves beneath us in the violent spasms of crustal relocation, an experience at once terrifying and awe-inspiring whether in California or Ecuador.

The 7.1-magnitude Hector Mine earthquake of October 16, 1999, centered in a remote part of the Mojave desert, was the first major seismic event which I had the privilege to experience after moving to California. For this composition, I acquired seismic event data spanning Southern California from the period of October 3 through November 5, 1999. This composition is based upon different methods of sonifying the vibrations of a simulated Earth’s surface, set into motion by the seismic events of this period. The piece proceeds chronologically, although the rate at which the data is sonified varies in the different sections. The largest, central section of the work features the period surrounding the Hector Mine earthquake.

This piece was produced entirely on a Macintosh PowerBook G4. Seismic event data were obtained from the Southern California Earthquake Data Center. The piece was constructed using events from October 3 through November 5, 1999. Three forms of audio generation were employed. The first two were based upon a simulation of a vibrating sheet excited by seismic events, which was written in C. The third involved synthesized sounds corresponding to seismic events, generated with CSound. CSound score files were generated using custom programs written in C. Mixing and processing were performed in Digital Performer.

This work was commissioned by the Eighth International Biennial of Painting, Cuenca, Ecuador.