Japanese scientists develop advanced earthquake detection method
By Aaron Jacob
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Taking inspiration from an Italian research paper that suggested earthquakes could be detected using gravimeters, researchers at the University of Tokyo’s Earthquake Research Institute decided to use seismic and gravitational data from the time and place a big earthquake struck. This would be highly useful in detecting earthquakes using gravimeters and seismometers.
Shingo Watada, Associate Professor at Earthquake Research Institute, and his team of fellow researchers were able to locate early earthquake signals from the massive amount of seismic and gravitational data produced during the 2011 Tohoku earthquake in eastern Japan.
Accorring to Masaya Kimura, postgraduate, ERI, said, “This is the first time anyone has shown definitive earthquake signals with such a method. Others have investigated the idea, but haven’t yet found reliable signals.”
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Scientists performed what they called signal analysis. This was an extremely reliable analysis and they call it 7-stigma accuracy. This meant that there would be only one-in-a-trillion chance where the result could be incorrect. This would greatly help not only prove the concept but can also be used for calibration for future experiments that would be tried specifically to detect earthquakes. Associate Professor, Masaki Ando, Department of Physics, has invented a one-of-a-kind gravimeter – the torsion bar antenna (TOBA) – the first of such instruments.
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