The ISR in Gandhinagar is working on an advance system of Early Earthquake Warning (EEW) with the aim of providing a forward 40 second shaky alert on citizens’ mobile phones to save precious lives and also protect critical infrastructure such as gas and power lines.
ISR scientists say they have been developing an Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithm for the last four years. Currently, it could detect the start of an earthquake epicenter in Kutch within 15 seconds and issue a warning that would give a 40-second heads-up to Ahmedabad.
Scientists say they are working to improve the technology to reduce the time of detecting the temblor to five to ten seconds, which will give an additional five to eight seconds to escape to safety.
The system is designed to detect the first rumble of an earthquake, predict the intensity and alert the public. The ISR has partnered with National Taiwan University (NTU) and is supported by the Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi.
” Wave travels 1.5 times faster ‘
The ISR has partnered with National Taiwan University (NTU) and is supported by the Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi. The ISR recently published the study in the Springer Journal of Geosciences and it is available in the public domain.
In the last four years, a team of ISR researchers – Santosh Kumar, Richa Chaubey and Ketan Singha Roy; NTUs Himanshu Mittal and Yih-Min Wu, en Ministry of Earth Sciences‘s Ajay Pratap Singh, trained the algorithm in the ISR’s 24-hour monitoring center to study patterns in the Kutch earthquakes measuring between 3 and 5.2 on the Richter scale. “The training of the algorithm has been challenging because not many shock events occur in the 3 to 5.2 Richter range. But we are at an advanced stage, ”said a senior ISR official.
How does the algorithm work? Earthquakes are composed of two different waves – first, the ‘P’ wave, which is a subtle vibration, is caused by false shifts that lead to compression of rocks. This moves about 1.5 times faster than the secondary than ‘S’ wave which is the destructive wave.
“The ‘P’ is like lightning that precedes the ‘S’ wave or thunder. If an earthquake occurs in Kutch 270 km away, the ‘P’ wave will be detected, processed and alerted within 15 seconds. It takes the ‘S’ wave 55 seconds to reach Ahmedabad. So this way we get a delivery time of 40 seconds, which is enough time for people to leave elevators, or take shelter before the shaking starts, “the ISR official added.
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