Quake-Catcher Network
| Quake-Catcher Network | |
|---|---|
| Area: | seismology |
| Target: | Register earthquakes , school education |
| Operator: | Earth Quake Country Alliance and EPIcenter |
| Country: | United States |
| Platform: | BOINC |
| Website: | https://quakecatcher.net/ |
| Project status | |
| Status: | active |
| Start: | February 3, 2008 |
Quake-Catcher Network (short: QCN) was a project for distributed computing ( distributed computing ) of Stanford University with the aim of earthquakes by means of worldwide distribution of seismic sensors to register. The vibration sensors in notebooks or sensors connected to PCs via USB are used for this. In order to distinguish whether it is actually an earthquake or just a local shock (for example because the notebook has been moved), as many sensors as possible should be nearby.
QCN is currently operated by the "Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS)", the "Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC)" and for training purposes as the "ShakeAlert Program United States Geological Survey".
The Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing is used as the platform . QCN is not offered in the project menu, the entry must be made manually. The application used for registration currently runs on Microsoft Windows ( 32-bit from 98 and 64-bit ), Linux (32-bit) and Mac OS X ( PowerPC from 10.3 , Intel from 10.4 and Intel 64-bit from 10.5 ). When using notebooks, make sure that they have a built-in shock sensor. The notebooks that have such a sensor include, for example, Apple MacBooks from 2005, ThinkPads from 2003.
Hewlett-Packard and Acer notebooks from 2007 are currently not supported by the project, although sensors are available.
If a notebook does not have a built-in sensor, you can connect an external sensor like a PC.
Web links
- The official project page (English)