Well, the SCiUS building at Silpakorn University, which we always rely on, has moved to a new location. It's a temporary home before moving into the building currently under construction.
After moving our belongings into the university's splendid dormitory, we were promptly taken out for dinner.The room's details will be shown in the photos later.
Dr. L from the Chemistry Department took us to a restaurant that apparently uses only organically grown ingredients. I think it was affiliated with a hospital. Here is a drink called Vanilla Sherry and a vegetable salad with raw salmon. This turned out to be the most luxurious dinner of the trip. Thank you so much for the meal, Dr. L.
On the left are pork spare ribs, and in the center is grilled salmon. This was served with organically grown red rice. The salmon is topped with a walnut sauce. Unlike the Thai rice I usually have, it wasn't heavily spiced, and the seasoning was quite different. It was my first time trying it. It looks absolutely delicious.
This is today's meal. It looks a bit like glutinous rice.
Would this be classified as Akamai in Japan? It emphasizes organic farming.
Well, this morning, there was an earthquake in Sanriku, so I'm hurriedly formatting the seismometer data I got last night in Excel to make it easier to see, pasting it into PowerPoint, and filling in the various phase information. It's been a while since I used a Windows laptop, so things are different, and I keep asking ChatGPT “What the heck is going on?” as I go along. Having gotten used to Linux's calc, I'm really bad at Excel processing. The horizontal motion data is still buried in noise without a box plot.
The distance from the observation point to the hypocenter is just over 4700 km. With the Omori coefficient set to 10, the S-P time of about 460 seconds matches perfectly. Also, this earthquake was somewhat deep (50 km deep according to the Japan Meteorological Agency), so the P-wave and S-wave are clearly distinguishable, though the surface waves are a bit tamer.
The seismometer we've been allowed to keep in a corner of the Physics Department library at Silpakorn University has been having issues with two of its horizontal motion sensors. So I've urgently disassembled the pendulum to repair the pivot area.
I ended up removing the pendulum from the base frame, thoroughly inspecting the pivot area, and filing down any parts that looked like they might make contact. Initially, I borrowed a file from the Physics Department workshop, but it wore down too quickly. So yesterday, Professor L took me to a DIY store where I purchased a new one. Another issue was the adhesive. As I'll show later, the PLA-printed plastic had somehow cracked. This adhesive, combined with the 3mm screw holes being stripped, meant it took two days just to find small nuts to secure the bolts.
Initial state around the pivot point. With almost no clearance, it was inevitable the pendulum would eventually make contact. I just kept filing it down relentlessly.
However, the screw holding the thin phosphor bronze plate was stripped. Finding the M3 nut shown in the photo to secure it was a real hassle. This DIY store mainly sells finished products and carries very few such materials or parts. I could have searched online retailers, but there was no guarantee it would arrive in time. So yesterday, Professor L took me to a small hardware store. At first, they said they didn't carry such a small nut, but they searched a box tucked away in a corner shelf containing only about ten nuts. I managed to buy this nut for just 10 baht. Getting this was truly lucky. Now I can complete the job properly.
There was a crack in the protrusion of this blue screw hole. The crack absolutely had to be repaired, so I tried to pour in the adhesive I bought yesterday that bonds plastic, but when I looked at it today, it said it takes 24 to 48 hours to completely solidify. This would not be fast enough, so I urgently asked a staff member to buy some cyanoacrylate instant adhesive. So, I used a hybrid method: first, I secured this PLA with the plastic-specific adhesive mentioned above, then I attached another green part and secured it with instant adhesive. This made it possible to glue it together in just a few hours of work this morning. I borrowed the clip from the office here.
Feeling encouraged, I continued working, only to discover a crack in the fulcrum of the other pendulum. The crack in this one was much worse. Naturally, I first poured in the instant adhesive and then applied a plastic-specific filler plate to the outside. I'm glad I had someone buy the instant adhesive. If I had gone to buy it myself, I wouldn't have been able to make it in time for the evening class.
It's a bit hard to see, but the pink text shows where I hastily cut a guitar pick I happened to find in the parts box with scissors to make a backing plate. I secured it with the tube of adhesive meant for long-term bonding. I decided to try every possible method. It took a bit of effort to come up with and implement these solutions within a few hours. The instant adhesive is visible in the background. While I could have simply reprinted the part in 3D, requesting the workshop to reassemble it would have required another full day. I absolutely needed to finish it today.
Repair complete: the pivot point secured with the backing plate and hybrid adhesive, plus an M3 nut I luckily managed to get. I also widened the gap around the pivot significantly. This should last a year, so next time I come, I'll bring the parts I reprinted at home.
And so, the pendulum reassembly is complete. It took about four hours from this morning. With a lecture on fossils and Earth history for students scheduled for 4 PM, time was limited, making it a real race against the clock.
I had forgotten about it, but the materials and parts I left here for repairs during my last visit were properly stored. However, the M3 nuts weren't included. From now on, I'll bring slightly specialized parts and tools myself, even if it means carrying a bit more luggage. The repair equipment this time, though, is a slightly older design that uses very thin 3mm screws. This often causes problems like stripped screw holes. The parts left here are a mix of the newer 4mm design and the older 3mm design. With DIY projects, you often improvise and change designs as you go, so this kind of situation is unavoidable.
Between hardware repairs, I worked on software setup. This is a program that automatically applies moving average processing to last year's recorded data, shifting it from 32Hz to 4Hz. I instructed Claude AI, and it created everything for me. It displays the processing progress graphically, making it incredibly user-friendly and a huge help. Initially, folder selection wasn't working properly, so I quickly connected to Claude and had it make adjustments for my PC. It's amazing what we can do online these days. The noise is from new construction work happening next door. Even the seismometer is recording fine vibrations.
Of course, I also manage classes for students during this time. They're very friendly students. Here they are yesterday, enjoying that flour fault experiment. Each group is watching the formation of the fault together. These are Grade 10 students, equivalent to high school freshmen. They're local high school students in a class of just 30 assigned to SCiUS, a university-led program. They commute daily by bus from their high school dormitory to study at this university. Tuition is free, so most students have excellent grades. The Grade 12 female student I spoke with at the end of today's fossil lesson mentioned she wants to become a doctor and is aiming for medical school. She seems to be coming to Osaka in March, so I'm thinking of offering to show her around.
Last year I messed up by using tapioca flour by mistake, so this time I carefully used wheat flour.
This time, thankfully, it seems to have worked out for everyone. We also have 10 sets of this fault set stored here.
The photos are a bit out of order, but this shows the diagram for the method using P-wave travel time for epicenter determination. To explain the earthquake mechanism, we first show this diagram because the primary wave distribution is necessary, then proceed to explain the fault motion based on that distribution. The fault experiment is conducted at the very end. This is a lab we've done many times at this school.
During breaks in the lectures, they always bring snacks like these. Sometimes sweets are included, and I often take them back to the lodging.
Here's how the fossil hunting went on the final day. This university has a large, complex-shaped pond on campus, surrounded by a large quantity of limestone that was likely brought in as building stone. We're checking whether any fossils are contained within it using hydrochloric acid and water. Unfortunately, the limestone at this location doesn't seem to contain any fossils, so we came up empty-handed. Still, the students participated in the fieldwork with great enthusiasm.
Here, they are learning how to break rocks with a hammer. The female students also participated in the practical session with great enthusiasm. Incidentally, large lizards inhabit this pond, occasionally sunbathing or swimming, which can be quite startling. Also, during a similar session the other day, we were attacked by a large number of red ants hiding in the fallen leaves, which was quite a struggle. Tropical ants can be quite scary.
The night before, Professor L took me to this place near a famous temple in town, kind of like a street food village. This big pagoda is the town's symbol.
This was dinner that day: stir-fried oysters. They were absolutely delicious!
Here's the wonderfully sweet sugar apple I was treated to. It was my first time trying one. I packed one half in my suitcase for the move to the next school, but that caused a little problem. Still, I'd love to have another one.
Let me introduce the lodging a bit. It's wonderfully clean with a very practical layout. It seems many teachers live here too.
The bedroom is also secured as a separate room.
The kitchen is well-equipped too—it's got everything you could possibly need. It's a layout perfectly suited for a family to live in. I'm nothing but grateful to be staying in such a place.
Finally finished the seismometer work, and Professor W from Physics came by to check on it and took some photos for me. They're having a splendid acrylic windproof case made for it. I really owe the physics department here a lot.
So, my duty work at this university is finally done. Tonight, I went out to buy my own dinner. Until recently, Professor L treated me to dinner every day, but today I left early to prepare for tomorrow. This Chang beer says “Espresso” on it. It's only 3 baht more expensive, but it has a slightly darker color and tastes just right for me. The TV, which I turned on for the first time in a while, has been broadcasting live coverage of the war with Cambodia nonstop. Tomorrow, I plan to do laundry at the coin laundry in front of the university's main gate in the morning, get a ride to the airport in the university van before noon, take an afternoon local flight, and head to Ubon Ratchathani Airport, which is quite close to the aforementioned war zone. I'm grateful to have made it this far safely. I also want to thank Professor L from the Chemistry Department, who always looks after me here.