Development of an Inexpensive Seismometer for Use in Educational Curriculum

Seismology, or the study of earthquakes, is one of the key tools humans use to understand and adapt to one of the most powerful, deadly, and unpredictable forces on Earth. Using seismology, we are able to anticipate where earthquakes are most likely to happen and can build structures to help withstand them. The goal of this project was to construct a budget friendly-yet-accurate networked seismograph whose steps could be documented for re-creation, suitable for use in schools as an educational tool. Ideally, through in-class construction, future K-12 and college students will learn about what makes a seismograph tick as well as learning about how earthquakes work through example by monitoring provided by the finished device. In the months of continuous operation since the completed project went online, multiple earthquakes have been detected with the seismograph, including a magnitude 6.0 earthquake from at least 2000 km away and a magnitude 7.5 from at least 5000 km away. The instrument was modeled after a preexisting seismograph available on the Union College campus and built for approximately one-fifth the cost of the original device. The end goal of this project is to encourage a more widespread adoption of earthquake education in schools through exciting activities which are turnkey, hands-on, and easy for teachers to adopt into their course curriculum for a reasonable cost. Details of the design and implementation of the instrument, as well as preliminary data on recent earthquakes that have been detected with it, will be shown.