Quake experts develop new system to monitor underground movements

London, Aug 31 (ANI): A five-strong group of scientists have developed a new technique that can monitor movements beneath the earth's surface to help understand how earthquakes behave.

The scientists, led by Andrew Curtis, Professor of Mathematical Geoscience at Edinburgh University, used computers to simulate the motion of one earthquake at the location of another to discover more in-depth information about underground movements.

They used information from seismometers - which collect data on earthquakes - to develop the technique.

The method also increases the number of locations that could be used to detect seismic activity.

"This turns the way we listen to seismic movements on its head. By using earthquakes themselves as virtual microphones that record the sound of the earth's internal movements, we can listen to the earth's stretching and cracking from directly within its most interesting dynamic places," the Scotsman quoted Curtis as saying.

"The key to the new method is understanding the theory of sound waves. It's more about back-projection - which is when we use a computer to send the sound wave of an earthquake down to the epicentre of another earthquake in order to measure the movements more precisely," he added. (ANI)