In the days and weeks following the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and
ensuing tsunami in Japan, the world was bombarded with
disturbing images and video of overturned cars and boats,
splintered homes and even leveled neighborhoods. But hearing the
earthquake — from its initial blast to the series of the plate-
slipping pops that follow — might provide a clearer picture of
its power. Thousands of seismometers are located in the region,
making the March 11 event the best-recorded earthquake of all-
time. Zhigang Peng, an associate professor at Georgia Tech’s
School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, helped bring that data
to life. Peng converted the seismic waves into audio files so
everyday folk could “hear” what the quake sounded like as it
moved through the earth and around the globe. Peng’s research,
which was supported in part by the National Science Foundation,
was published in the March/April edition of Seismological
Research Letters. Peng has made audio files of quakes in the
past. But he saw the Tohoku-Oki ea