Experts Available to Discuss Seismic Activity During Sago Mine Explosion.

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TOPIC: Experts from Virginia Tech and WeatherBug, which is a weather information service, are exploring the possibility that seismic activity was recorded at the time of the Sago Mine explosion, according to an article by the Wall Street Journal. The WeatherBug lightning network detected a powerful lightning strike last Monday morning at 6:26 a.m., two seconds before the seismic event. At this time, the experts cannot conclude that lightning caused last week's explosion, which killed 12 men. However, they are advising officials to consider the data during their investigation.

EXPERTS: ExpertSource can offer several highly qualified experts to comment on this story:

Bob Marshall is President & CEO of WeatherBug, the trade name and product banner for AWS, which Bob founded in 1992. Marshall pioneered the networking of weather instrumentation and cameras using the Internet. He parlayed this capability into the single, largest network of weather stations and Internet cameras in the world. Marshall is responsible for the business strategy and operations of the company, and has led AWS to become one of the largest private weather media companies by building a series of unique and profitable business units. Outside AWS, Marshall currently serves as chairman of the Committee on Technology Education (COTE) in the state of Maryland, under the Maryland Business Roundtable for Education (MBRT). The COTE committee is responsible for the development, implementation and monitoring of the "Maryland Plan for Technology in Education." Marshall also serves on the Advisory Board for The Johns Hopkins University Center for Technology in Education, a premier educational technology research organization. Prior to launching AWS, Marshall served as a program manager and lead engineer at BBN (formerly Bolt, Beranek and Newman, the company credited with starting the Internet) on a number of advanced military sensor, signal processing and networking programs. Marshall is a cum laude graduate of the University Of Maryland College of Engineering. Bob Marshall is a frequent speaker and author for major broadcast, Internet, computer technology and new media trade publications, organizations and events. He keynoted at last year's annual Digital Media Conference.

Dr. Rodney Bent, CEO and Chief Scientist of TOA Systems, Inc., has over 25 years of experience in atmospheric and space physics, with particular emphasis on lightning detection and protection and atmospheric electricity. Dr. Bent held a senior position with the United Kingdom Government in space physics on lightning investigation and detection, which involved international inter-agency scientific liaison work. He has traveled extensively throughout the world, giving scientific papers and holding discussions with many leading scientists. He has over 80 scientific publications in leading journals. Bent was a member of the British National Committee for Scientific Radio. 1967-1974; elected member of the International Commission of Atmospheric Electricity, Lightning Subcommission 1970-1975; and elected Secretary of the Lightning and Sferic Subcommission in 1975. Dr. Bent has presented many technical papers to universities and national organizations on various topics of lightning and surge physics. He has acted as a consultant on lightning physics to the U.S. Government and large corporations. He is an elected member of the Lightning Institute Code Committee and has considerable experience in surge and transient suppression and has lectured extensively on the subject. In 1980, was elected to the U.S. Standard Lightning Protection Code Committee, NFPA81, and in 1981, was elected as the U.S. delegate to the International Electrotechnical Committee technical group on lightning and surge protection, which is developing a worldwide standard. Dr. Bent works closely with the leading scientists around the world on all aspects of lightning and surge physics. One of Dr. Bent's major achievements is the work he has performed on lightning location and detection techniques. His patents on this technology and the LPATS (Lightning Position and Tracking System) have brought him worldwide recognition in this field. LPATS is now installed in 16 countries around the world on six continents.

Dr. Martin C. Chapman is Research Assistant Professor, Department of Geosciences at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia. He is also the director of the Virginia Tech Regional Seismic Network. His research interests include, seismicity of continental interiors, strong motion seismology and seismic hazard assessment.

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