The Quake-Catcher Network was an initiative run by the University of Southern California that aimed to use computer-based

accelerometer An accelerometer is a device that measures the proper acceleration of an object. Proper acceleration is the acceleration (the rate of change (mathematics), rate of change of velocity) of the object relative to an observer who is in free fall (tha ...

s to detect earthquakes. It used the BOINC

volunteer computing Volunteer computing is a type of distributed computing in which people donate their computers' unused resources to a research-oriented project, and sometimes in exchange for credit points. The fundamental idea behind it is that a modern desktop ...

platform (a form of

distributed computing Distributed computing is a field of computer science that studies distributed systems, defined as computer systems whose inter-communicating components are located on different networked computers. The components of a distributed system commu ...

, similar to

SETI@home SETI@home ("SETI at home") is a project of the Berkeley SETI Research Center to analyze radio signals with the aim of Search for extraterrestrial intelligence, searching for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence. Until March 2020, it was run ...

). It supported mobile devices (smartphones and some tablets/laptops) that have a built-in accelerometer. It also supported three external USB devices - the codemercs.com JoyWarrior 24F8, the ONavi sensor, and the MotionNode Accel. In 2011, project scientist Elizabeth Cochran was awarded a Presidential Early Career Award from US President Barack Obama in large part due to her founding of the Quake-Catcher Network project. The Quake Catcher Network project started at Stanford University in 2008, then moved to Caltech, and joined the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) and the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) in 2016. The Quake-Catcher Network was discontinued on June 1st 2023

References

External links

Interactive world map, showing recent earthquakes (day/week/month)
– ''result of QCN'' Science in society Free science software Volunteer computing projects {{California-university-stub