Keep track of the Earth's seismic activity

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No LISS? Not that many people can understand the data ...

I was involved with IRIS (and another network whose name I forget) about 20 years ago. Those were exciting times - the digital broadband seismometer had been developed by the USGS and DoE (and a number of small and huge businesses); it must have been the first significant development in instrumentation since the invention of the galvanometer recorders and it was a huge change. Being a new instrument (already extensively tested in the lab though), aside from the broadband sensor we plugged the old long-period sensors into the system for comparison over a few years. The instruments were remarkable for their era; all the changes in technology since have resulted in refinements of the sensor and I can now pack the electronics into something the size of a lunchbox (and the instrument can cost as much as a car rather than as much as a mansion).

By MadScientist (not verified) on 02 Feb 2010 #permalink

2 great free iPhone apps: USGS Seismic, which displays the USGS recent earthquake feed (tap on a quake to get full info), and USGS, which shows recent USGS news and also lists recent large quakes.