The Earth below our feet is never still. Although we feel tremors only when they are substantially strong, such as during earthquakes, we can use the highly popular single board computer, the Raspberry Pi or RBPi to monitor what is happening just under us. This tiny seismograph, with an appropriate name of Raspberry Shake, is the smallest one can find.
Although small, Raspberry Shake can record earthquakes of all magnitudes, even those no human senses can detect. It is also capable of recording those huge destructive quakes that occur regularly around the globe. Raspberry Shake has a companion, the Raspberry Boom, and it detects infrasonic sounds given off when the Earth shakes.
During earthquakes, the Earth gives off low frequency sounds that are below the threshold of human hearing, but infrasound travels large distances. Other objects also generate such infrasound, including traffic, trains, airplanes, wind farms, weather systems, meteorites, and many more. The Raspberry Boom is the perfect companion to the Raspberry Shake for detecting and studying infrasound.
You only have to snap the Raspberry Shake and Boom on to an RBPi. The two together form a super capable Earth monitoring network. Plugging their output into a Station View then allows creating a powerful array for monitoring and discovering several fascinating events from around the world in real time.
The Raspberry Shake and Boom combine several technologies. The Raspberry Shake has a powerful processor on its main board, and a digitizer with built-in sensors including a geophone or super-sensitive motion sensor for detecting Earth movements. You can plug this Shake board right into the RBPi board, which will power it. The data from the Shake board uses miniSEED for processing, as this is a standard data format the industry uses. The output is also compatible with jAmaSeis, and that makes it easy to learn, monitor, and analyze.
Other advanced options on the Raspberry Shake allow experienced users to use it by programming their own protocols such as the IFTTT. They can also laser print their own enclosures. Other users, especially novices, can also use the Raspberry Shake easily, as the design of the devices allows them to be plug-n-play. Their design is professional and anyone can use them on home monitors.
Anyone can use the Raspberry Shake range. For instance, Educational facilities, consumer interest groups, professional institutes, makers, RBPi enthusiasts, citizen scientists, hobbyists, and more can simply plug into the network of Raspberry Shakes to start watching the planet vibrate.
It is very easy for any school or university to access data from any Raspberry Shake anywhere in the world, allowing them to monitor seismic activity of any active earthquake area as well as of quiet regions anywhere. They can view any event such as those demonstrated in IRIS Teachable Moments, including micro-tremors or other larger events.
The Raspberry Shakes are compatible with SWARM analytical software and jAmaSeis. This made the Oklahoma Geological Survey acquire 100 units for expanding their network. They rolled these units to schools and educational institutional facilities for raising the awareness and providing valuable educational tools.
