Seismology at School in Nepal: A Program for Educational and Citizen Seismology Through a Low-Cost Seismic Network
Nepal, located above the convergent India-Eurasia plate boundary, has repeatedly experienced devastating earthquakes. During the 2015 magnitude 7.8 Gorkha earthquake, an often-reported experience was that people were not aware of the threatening seismic hazard and had an insufficient level of prepar...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2020-04-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Earth Science |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/feart.2020.00073/full |
| _version_ | 1818237214529683456 |
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| author | Shiba Subedi György Hetényi Paul Denton Anne Sauron |
| author_facet | Shiba Subedi György Hetényi Paul Denton Anne Sauron |
| author_sort | Shiba Subedi |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Nepal, located above the convergent India-Eurasia plate boundary, has repeatedly experienced devastating earthquakes. During the 2015 magnitude 7.8 Gorkha earthquake, an often-reported experience was that people were not aware of the threatening seismic hazard and had an insufficient level of preparedness. An important source of the problem is that earthquake-related topics are not part of the school curriculum. Earthquake education reaching a broad group of the population early in their lives is therefore strongly needed. We established an initiative in Nepal to introduce seismology in schools, with a focus on education and citizen seismology. We have prepared educational materials adapted to the Nepali school system, which we distributed and also share on our program’s website: http://seismoschoolnp.org. In selected schools, we also installed a low-cost seismometer to record seismicity and to allow learning-by-doing classroom activities. Our approach was very well received and we hope it will help make earthquake-safe communities across Nepal. The seismic sensor which we installed in schools is a Raspberry Shake 1D (RS1D), this was selected based on its performance in laboratory tests and suitability for the field conditions. At a test site in Switzerland we were able to record magnitude 1.0 events up to 50 km distance with a RS1D. In Nepal, 22 such seismometers installed in schools create the Nepal School Seismology Network providing online data openly. The seismometer in each school allows students to be informed of earthquakes, visualize the respective waveforms, and estimate the distance and magnitude of the event. For significant local and regional events, we provide record sections and network instrumental intensity maps on our program’s website. In 6 months of network operation, more than 194 local and teleseismic earthquakes of M ≥ 4 have been recorded. From a local and a global catalog, complemented with our own visual identifications, we have provided an earthquake wave detectability graph in distance and magnitude domain. Based on our observations, we have calibrated a new magnitude equation for Nepal, related to the epicentral distance D [km] and to the observed peak vertical ground velocity PGVV [μm/s]. The calibration is done to best fit local catalog magnitudes, and yields the following equation: M = 1.05 × log10(PGVV) + 1.08 × log10(D) + 0.75. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-12T12:22:12Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-de44776508524e26b594a9f8fa3f38cc |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2296-6463 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-12T12:22:12Z |
| publishDate | 2020-04-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
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| series | Frontiers in Earth Science |
| spelling | doaj.art-de44776508524e26b594a9f8fa3f38cc2022-12-22T00:24:38ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Earth Science2296-64632020-04-01810.3389/feart.2020.00073518658Seismology at School in Nepal: A Program for Educational and Citizen Seismology Through a Low-Cost Seismic NetworkShiba Subedi0György Hetényi1Paul Denton2Anne Sauron3Institute of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Geosciences and Environment, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, SwitzerlandInstitute of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Geosciences and Environment, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, SwitzerlandBritish Geological Survey, Nottingham, United KingdomHES-SO Valais-Wallis, Sion, SwitzerlandNepal, located above the convergent India-Eurasia plate boundary, has repeatedly experienced devastating earthquakes. During the 2015 magnitude 7.8 Gorkha earthquake, an often-reported experience was that people were not aware of the threatening seismic hazard and had an insufficient level of preparedness. An important source of the problem is that earthquake-related topics are not part of the school curriculum. Earthquake education reaching a broad group of the population early in their lives is therefore strongly needed. We established an initiative in Nepal to introduce seismology in schools, with a focus on education and citizen seismology. We have prepared educational materials adapted to the Nepali school system, which we distributed and also share on our program’s website: http://seismoschoolnp.org. In selected schools, we also installed a low-cost seismometer to record seismicity and to allow learning-by-doing classroom activities. Our approach was very well received and we hope it will help make earthquake-safe communities across Nepal. The seismic sensor which we installed in schools is a Raspberry Shake 1D (RS1D), this was selected based on its performance in laboratory tests and suitability for the field conditions. At a test site in Switzerland we were able to record magnitude 1.0 events up to 50 km distance with a RS1D. In Nepal, 22 such seismometers installed in schools create the Nepal School Seismology Network providing online data openly. The seismometer in each school allows students to be informed of earthquakes, visualize the respective waveforms, and estimate the distance and magnitude of the event. For significant local and regional events, we provide record sections and network instrumental intensity maps on our program’s website. In 6 months of network operation, more than 194 local and teleseismic earthquakes of M ≥ 4 have been recorded. From a local and a global catalog, complemented with our own visual identifications, we have provided an earthquake wave detectability graph in distance and magnitude domain. Based on our observations, we have calibrated a new magnitude equation for Nepal, related to the epicentral distance D [km] and to the observed peak vertical ground velocity PGVV [μm/s]. The calibration is done to best fit local catalog magnitudes, and yields the following equation: M = 1.05 × log10(PGVV) + 1.08 × log10(D) + 0.75.https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/feart.2020.00073/fulleducational seismologycitizen scienceseismic hazardearthquake magnitudeNepal |
| spellingShingle | Shiba Subedi György Hetényi Paul Denton Anne Sauron Seismology at School in Nepal: A Program for Educational and Citizen Seismology Through a Low-Cost Seismic Network Frontiers in Earth Science educational seismology citizen science seismic hazard earthquake magnitude Nepal |
| title | Seismology at School in Nepal: A Program for Educational and Citizen Seismology Through a Low-Cost Seismic Network |
| title_full | Seismology at School in Nepal: A Program for Educational and Citizen Seismology Through a Low-Cost Seismic Network |
| title_fullStr | Seismology at School in Nepal: A Program for Educational and Citizen Seismology Through a Low-Cost Seismic Network |
| title_full_unstemmed | Seismology at School in Nepal: A Program for Educational and Citizen Seismology Through a Low-Cost Seismic Network |
| title_short | Seismology at School in Nepal: A Program for Educational and Citizen Seismology Through a Low-Cost Seismic Network |
| title_sort | seismology at school in nepal a program for educational and citizen seismology through a low cost seismic network |
| topic | educational seismology citizen science seismic hazard earthquake magnitude Nepal |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/feart.2020.00073/full |
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