IIT to design early earthquake warning system

Ahmedabad, Oct 3: Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad has taken up a project to design a 'slightly early' earthquake warning system. The IIT-GN researchers have partnered with California Institute of Technology (CIT) , Pasadena , USA, to develop the system which will have a strong network of low cost motion sensor and the ability to detect earthquake's early seismic activity.

"The goal of our project is to put in place a network of small devices called accelerometers near an active fault line which can pick up earth vibrations. They can be standalone devices transmitting data to a central server," said Prof Girish Singhal, project in-charge at IIT-GN.

Singhal clamied that "A mesh of very low-cost sensors in that area shall be able to pick up velocity of shock waves, issuing slight early alerts of an earthquake".

According to experts, the alert from the system will help to close down big machines, which are major sources of secondary losses during an earthquake.

Meanwhile, the project is expected to be of significant help to first responders during a natural calamity.

OneIndia News