This open source earthquake alert system aims to revolutionize seismic monitoring

With the deployment of sensors around the world, the open source project aims to improve existing earthquake detection and warning systems and use machine learning and other technologies.

Photo: iStock / dutourdumonde

In the United States alone, nearly half the population lives in areas subject to potentially devastating shaking during an earthquake, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Around the world, the population in seismic-prone areas has increased dramatically in recent decades. To give people time to protect themselves from seismic events, some countries have built complex earthquake early warning (EEW) systems.

Once such a network detects an earthquake and sends an alert, it gives people time to move to a safer location. However, establishing EEW is an expensive undertaking. Japan’s early warning system has cost an estimated $ 1 billion. Building such a system for the US West Coast would cost roughly $ 40 million, with maintenance and operating costs totaling over $ 16 million annually, per reports.

A new open source seismology project known as OpenEEW takes an innovative approach to traditional seismic alert and monitoring systems. With support from the IBM, Linux Foundation, and others, OpenEEW is focused on building a network of sensors to help respond to earthquakes quickly and at affordable prices around the world.

Seismic shift in seismology

Since early 2018, software and hardware company Grillo has used its EEW system in Chile and Mexico to monitor seismic activity and send alerts. With Grillo sensors, cloud-based algorithms are fed initial accelerometer data to monitor seismic activity. If an earthquake is detected, an alert is sent via Twitter and the Grillo app.

Recent advances in IoT technologies, cloud solutions, and more have allowed Grillo to deploy cost-effective alternatives to standard EEW technologies. As a result, Grillo is able to take advantage of more cost-effective seismic sensors compared to the researchers that researchers typically deploy to monitor earthquakes.

“In the case of the West Coast of the United States, they are actually using laboratory-level seismographs that cost $ 20,000 and above, and that’s because the people in charge are seismologists who use these devices for research as well. In our case, we don’t care about earthquakes of magnitude two over Richter scale, we only want the five, the six, and the seventh, so we have a lot of the most stupid sensors but they do the job very well, ”said Grillo founder Andres Meera.

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Use algorithms to filter out noise in data

Earthquake monitoring involves sifting through an enormous amount of data and ambient noise to determine seismic activity. Instead of placing these sensors in more rural areas surrounding cities to ensure clean readings, Grillo has placed these components in buildings throughout urban environments, leveraging various algorithms in the cloud to filter out city noise.

“We have really good algorithms that filter out noise, so people walking by, doors shutting, cars going past. We know these aren’t earthquakes in our software, and that’s a big problem because other examples around the world, it looks like in relation to these very clean locations where they don’t There is no ambient noise in it. We don’t care much about that, “said Mira.

Once one station confirms a potential earthquake amid the noise of the urban environment, the system waits for other systems to validate the earthquake, reducing the risk of false positives, according to Myra. However, Mira has also discussed using machine learning to enable earthquake confirmation based on single-site readings rather than waiting for confirmation from nearby sensors.

Open source seismic monitoring

Even multi-million dollar seismic observation events can be designed with their own set of underlying flaws and potential blind spots. The national system depends on the economic, political and social factors of a particular government; As Mira noted, “Earthquakes do not respect borders, political boundaries.”

“In the case of Mexico, the earthquakes in Guatemala affected the Chiapas region in southern Mexico. And again, in northern Mexico, earthquakes in California affected Mexico and earthquakes in Mexico affected California,” Mira said.

Unlike a national seismic platform, the team’s open source EEW project is designed to create a global partnership rather than a nationalized network, allowing people around the world to deploy these systems in their communities as part of a larger set of human sensors.

“The thing here is that any national system, run by a government, will not be able to help others. So you are actually blind. [to] Some of the events that [a] Risky for you. So the idea of ​​Open EEW is to allow systems to operate on a citizen-based basis where people can only publish their own networks and everyone helps each other here, ”said Mira.

IBM has two sensors deployed in Puerto Rico, one in the northeast of the island and the other in the southwest corner, according to Croke. On Thursday, August 6, the night before our interview, Daniel Crook, chief technology officer at IBM’s Call For Code program, said the seismic system had detected shaking when an earthquake struck the island, with the alert being sent via Twitter.

“We could compare the two locations to see how the vibrations travel and we were also able to see that actually plotted. Last night in Puerto Rico there was a 4.8-magnitude earthquake and seeing it is already making its way through the technology and the sensors that he deployed in partnership with Grillo is really exciting,” Croke said.

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A global call to challenge code and collaborate

OpenEEW is following up on previous IBM “technology for good” initiatives such as the Call for Code Global Challenge. In 2018, Project OWL won the Call for Code Challenge. The cloud-based tool is designed to facilitate communication and logistical support during disaster scenarios.

The OWL project uses “DuckLinks” (an interlocking network of IoT components of the Internet of Things) to enhance communication between people and first responders during disasters. Interestingly, there could be a potential overlap between Project OWL and OpenEEW.

“What Project Owl did that could complement Open EEW is that Open EEW currently requires an Ethernet or WiFi cable. So Project Owl solves these issues with batteries, solar power, as well as long-range radio, LoRa. So there are potential approaches for the two projects. To collaborate on a common platform, which is really exciting, ”Crook said.

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