earth science

Kate Hutton

Kate Hutton is a earth science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Kate Hutton rather than just read about it. In short: Kate Hutton, nicknamed the Earthquake Lady, Dr. Kate, or Earthquake Kate, is a former staff seismologist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, where she monitored Southern California's earthquake activity for 37 years.

Key takeaways

Kate Hutton belongs to earth science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Kate Hutton to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Kate Hutton from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Kate Hutton, nicknamed the Earthquake Lady, Dr. Kate, or Earthquake Kate, is a former staff seismologist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, where she monitored Southern California's earthquake activity for 37 years.

Background While Hutton was growing up, her family lived in several states and spent six years in Taiwan. She was interested in all kinds of natural sciences, and she decided to stay in the fields of math and science. Hutton was an amateur astronomer in her teens. Hutton received a B.S. in astronomy from Pennsylvania State University in 1971, and an M.S. (1973) and Ph.D. (1976) in astronomy from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Scientific career After graduating with her Ph.D., Hutton says she found astronomy jobs scarce, so switched careers. She sees astronomy and seismology as similar: "Earth is a planet, after all, so it's sort of a matter of looking down rather than looking up." In 1977, she began work at Caltech's seismology lab as a data analyst. She worked her way up to senior seismologist and was in charge of operating Caltech's earthquake measuring program and also conducted research. Hutton's academic research areas in seismology included magnitude measurement, seismotectonics, and the development of the Southern California Seismic Network. Hutton worked on a project to improve the consistency of the “earthquake catalog”, which is a list of over 400,000 southern California quakes recorded since 1932. She also worked on the development of earthquake safety programs, such as the statewide Earthquake Early Warning System, which could provide early notice of an earthquake and mitigate casualties and damage. Hutton retired from Caltech on Jan 30, 2015.

Public outreach Starting in the 1980s and 1990s, Hutton regularly appeared in the media alone and sometimes with her United States Geological Survey colleague Dr. Lucy Jones to inform the public about recent earthquakes in Southern California and abroad. Hutton was “very successful and highly valued” at Caltech because of her ability to communicate complex topics clearly and accurately to the public. Hutton was also sought out by international news organizations from Japan, Korea, Sweden, and France for her explanations of earthquakes. According to LA Weekly, "Hutton strikes just the right balance between calm and caution" in explaining earthquake science to viewers.

Personal life Hutton is a licensed amateur radio (ham radio) operator and has been involved with the Palm Springs Hamfest. She is also the Section Traffic Manager for the Los Angeles Section of the American Radio Relay League, which calls itself "the national association for amateur radio." Hutton has been an out lesbian since 1984, and is often listed as a "lesbian icon." She gave a tour of the Caltech seismology lab for the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Scientists group. Hutton was the consulting seismologist for the 1990 monster movie Tremors starring Kevin Bacon. She also appeared in the 1981 Nostradamus documentary-movie The Man Who Saw Tomorrow.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Kate Hutton

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Kate Hutton claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In earth science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Kate Hutton before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Kate Hutton ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Kate Hutton

In research: Kate Hutton appears in earth science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Kate Hutton in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Kate Hutton is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 20th-century American geologists, 20th-century American women physicists, 20th-century American women scientists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Kate Hutton outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Kate Hutton in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Kate Hutton means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Kate Hutton out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Kate Hutton in simple terms?

Why does Kate Hutton matter?

Because it connects several earth science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Kate Hutton?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Kate Hutton.