Real-Time Earthquake Tracking and Localisation

After the great tsunami of 2004 and the earthquake in Sichuan, China, in 2008, two big thinkers knew they must try to prevent the damage inflicted by surprise earthquakes.

George R. Daglish and Iurii P. Sizov teamed up to create an experimental seismic software system that contains application areas for inclusion in an earthquake early warning software structure.

In this book, they highlight the work they’ve done thus far.

The algorithms can be grouped into several main types: planar earth calculations to determine epicenters; calculations over a spherical earth model to determine epicenters; rapid tabular scans to determine epicenters and hypocenters concurrently, using either spherical or spheroidal earth geometry directly; and hypocenter scans using spheroidal earth geometry.

The authors also describe the testing of all members of the grouping, using real earthquake data. They assess the timing and accuracy of each against received and current results taken from the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology archive.

If the world doesn’t take concerted action to predict and track earthquakes, the consequences will be unthinkable, which is why we must work toward real-time earthquake tracking and localization.