New ’quake device under experiment

Press, 20 February 1988, Page 33

New ’quake device under experiment

PA Wellington Geophysicists are testing a prototype of an earthquake-monitoring device which would give researchers better information about earthquake patterns. The device designed by scientists at the D.S.I.R.’s Geophysics Division, would bring seismic readings from portable machines into the computer age. Although the main network of seismic recorders run by the division have switched to digital recording, field recorders are recording ground movements by scratching patterns on to paper with a needle.

The new portable device, named EARSS, would allow field researchers to catch up with technology by recording movements on to magnetic tape for later computer playback.

The chairman of the Institute of Geophysics at Victoria University, Dr

Jim Ansell, said it hoped to buy six of the machines in June. Unlike the machines now used by the institute, the digital recorder filtered noises which were not earthquakes, such as traffic, the sea or people moving around the recording site.

Data from the new machine could be analysed in greater detail and could be manipulated graphically to emphasise different features, Dr Ansell said. It was expected to save a lot of time in the data analysis stage or research.

The machine, designed by Mr Ken Gledhill and Dr Mike Randall at the D.5.1.R., was equal to or better than the latest portable equipment available overseas, Dr Ansell said.lt was also cheaper at $15,000 a machine.

The machine would be particularly useful for going into areas after a major earthquake to analyse aftershock patterns, Dr Ansell said.