Celebrations make the ground shake

Truro School has been in possession of a Raspberry Shake seismometer for over a year, supplied as part of a local schools network, by United Downs Deep Geothermal Project.

During that time, we have detected earthquakes from as far away as the Kermadec Islands, near New Zealand, a huge M7.0 quake from Peru, quakes from Albania, Somerset and the Lizard, as well as over 20 other significant earthquakes, the New Year fireworks and quarry blasts in Longdowns.

This day plot shows local “noise” picked up on the seismometer from events throughout the day on the school’s 140th birthday, from the cleaners working before sunrise, to the parents’ options information evening in the Heseltine Gallery. The seismometer is located near the chapel.

You can see live data from our seismometer by zooming in to Cornwall on the world map at https://raspberryshake.net/stationview/ and clicking on seismometer R7FA5, but be warned, the periodic, higher frequency signal from the central heating boiler has not been filtered out on the live feed.