PROCEEDINGS OF ICETECT 2011

SIMULATION OF EARTHQUAKES AND TSUNAMI THROUGH GSM NETWORK

G.SARADHA
B.TECH-IT(FINAL YEAR) MOOKAMBIGAI COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, PUDUKKOTTAI-622 502, TAMILNADU, INDIA. saradhagunasekaran@gmail.com

ABSTRACT: Every year thousands of people die

because of earthquake occurs in a dangerous place or during a defenseless sleep. Heres a GSM-based seismic alert system that could warn before an earthquake strikes. Earthquakes strike without warning. The resulting damage can be minimized and lives can be saved if people living in the earthquake-prone area are already prepared to survive the strike. This requires a warning before strong ground motion from the earthquake arrival. Such a warning system is possible because of energy wave released at the epicenter of the earth quake travels slower than light. The warning signal from the earthquake epicenter can be transmitted to different places using satellite communication network, fiber-optics network, pager service, Cell phone services or a combination of these. The satellite-based network is ideal when an alert system has to cover a large country like India. For earthquake-prone states like Gujarat, a seismic alert system using the global system for mobile communication network spread throughout the state is proposed here. This system does not try to find the epicenter or fault line caused by the earthquake. It simply monitors the earth vibrations and generates alert signal when the level of earth vibrations crosses a threshold.

December 2004 an earthquake of 9.0 on the Richter scale occurred west of Aceh in Sumatra, Indonesia[1]. The epicenter was located at latitude 3.1degree north and longitude 95.5 degree east, about 680 kilometers northwest of KualaLumpur and 590 kilometers west of Penang. This earthquake has generated a massive and disastrous Indian Oceanwide tsunami that struck the coasts of a number of countries in the region with high tidal waves. This unprecedented tsunami had killed thousands of people in several countries bordering the Indian Ocean.

Keywords: GSM, Accelerometer, Interface unit, Application server, Network or sms server. I.INTRODUCTION: Earthquakes strike without warning. Every year thousands of people die because of this. The result of damage can be minimized by alerting the people about the occurrence of natural calamities i.e., like earthquakes, tsunamis etc. For this purpose, we use advanced technologies like GSM (Global System for Mobile communication technology). On 26

II.PRE-EXISTING SYSTEM FOR TSUNAMI WARNING: Regional (or local) warning system centers use seismic data about nearby earthquakes to determine if there is a possible local threat of a tsunami [2]. Such systems are capable of issuing warning to the general public (via public address systems and sirens) in less than 15 minutes. Although the epicenter and moment magnitude of an underwater quake and the probable

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tsunami arrival time can be quickly calculated. It is almost always impossible to know whether underwater ground shifts have occurred which will result in tsunami waves. As a result, false alarms can occur with these systems, but due to the highly localized nature of these extremely quick warnings, disruption is small. III.NEED FOR TSUNAMI EARLY WARNING SYSTEM The tragedy happened because no country bordering the Indian Ocean had any experience and capability in the issuance of tsunami warning[3]. In the absence of an effective tsunami warning system, the Government will not be in a position to provide any effective early warning to the public in the event of another tsunami generated in the Indian Ocean. Maintaining real-time continuous monitoring of earthquake occurrences and tsunami on a 24-hour basis throughout the year. Issuance of information, advisory, notice, early warning and warning on the occurrence of earthquake and tsunami that threaten the security and safety. The system shall be an integral part of the proposed Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System which is very concerned with the lack of capability in carrying out tsunami watch and the issuance of early warning for tsunami in the nation. IV.WORKING: This system simply monitors the earth vibrations and generates an alert signal when the level of earth vibrations crosses a threshold. Generally the threshold will be 5.5 on Richter scale because earthquakes of magnitude less than 5.5 can hardly affect the buildings. Earth Quake [seismic] waves are of three types; 1. Primary waves. 2. Secondary waves. 3. Surface waves. 1. Primary waves(p): These waves are the fastest waves of all the three. These travel at a velocity of 8km/sec. These are

compression in nature like sound waves. These compress and expand the materials in their direction of travel. 2.Secondary waves(s): These waves travel at a velocity of 4km/sec. These move the earth up and down perpendicular to the direction of their motion. These causes a damage to the low-rise buildings. 3.Surface waves: These are the least velocity waves up all the three. These cause a great damage to the buildings, especially to the high-rise buildings.

Example: Ahmadabad, which is 370km away from

Bhuj, was attacked after 80sec on January 26,2001. V.COMMUNICATING THE DANGER:

ACCELEROMETER INTERFACE UNIT ACCELEROMETER

Figure.1.Sensor Network In Figure.1, the sensor network consists of two accelerometers, an interface unit and a mobile hand set. The signal has to be generated as quickly as possible. This may result in the possibility of generating false alarm. Each sensing location should have 2 accelerometers placed 2 or 3 meters away from each other. The purpose of installing 2 accelerometers at each place is to detect and eliminate the local vibration noise, which can give false signals to the accelerometer. An interface unit which has to be developed will monitor both the accelerometers. It will act only when both the accelerometers give the same signals. In this way we can eliminate the generation of false signal. The discrete magnitude levels will be detected and any magnitude above the preset threshold level will

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be transferred to the mobile receiver handset via SMS (short message service). The handset in turn, will send it to the Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) if it is 10 to 17 km distant, else it may require a repeater for transforming data to the handset. VI.OVERVIEW OF TSUNAMI EARLY WARNING SYSTEM: The tsunami warning system will have several components comprising of various sub-systems which provide real-time monitoring, alert of seismic and tsunami activities as well as timely dissemination of earthquake/tsunami warning, advisory and information.

A Processing Component which comprises the following subsystems: An Integration/Analysis sub-system that will integrate all the necessary input information together and analyze these information as input to the intelligent Decision Making Subsystem. An intelligent Decision Making sub-system as a useful aid to the meteorologist in making quick decisions in the issuance of seismic information and tsunami warning. A Tsunami Prediction Sub-system with appropriate historical database with possible inundation areas under different scenarios of tsunami occurrences. It will quickly generate the necessary tsunami alerts to expedite the determination of possible occurrence or nonoccurrence of tsunami. Television and studio subsystem for direct broadcast by the broadcast media. This system will be used for all other weather-related disasters that can be directly broadband to radio and television. A big screen display sub-system for easy monitoring and also facilities for television broadcast. This system is linked with the weather forecast system can also be used to display and broadcast the weather information when required.

This Component Comprises the following SubSystems: a. The seismic network sub-system which monitors and determines the location and magnitude of the earthquakes. b. A deep ocean buoy network sub-system for monitoring distant tsunamis. c. Tide gauge network sub-system is to measure and monitor wave activities reaching the shores. d. Coastal camera network sub-system whereby strategically located cameras monitor and relay realtime pictures of sea state to the National Tsunami Warning Center. e. Linkage to IOTWS and other tsunami warning centers.

A Dissemination Component is designed to disseminate advisory/warning and other information to all relevant personnel and agencies within 15 minutes after the occurrence of an earthquake. The modes of dissemination include the following:a. Dispatching short messages to mobile phones. b. Sending electronic/tele fax to relevant disaster management agencies. c. Transmitting relevant information to mass media and mass media broadcasting systems consisting of radio, television and print media to broadcast warning messages. d. Alerting the targeted public through public announcement systems using sirens and alarms including facilities available at mosques.

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e. Alerting public through phones and SMS based on area discrimination. f. Automated updating of earthquake and tsunami web-pages. Data acquisition and linkages to international earthquake/tsunami warning centers: To enable the system is to determine the earthquake location more accurately, monitoring data from overseas earthquake centers and need to be acquired on a real-time basis. These data must be arrived and integrated into the seismic monitoring system. Data from the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty(CTBT) network must also be acquired on a real-time basis to enhance the availability of data[5]. The system shall also acquire in the most effective and efficient way on real-time earthquake and tsunami information released by international centers such as PTWC, JMA, the proposed Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System which should be coordinated by the Intergovernmental Oceanic Commission of UNESCO and sub-regional/national centers in the ASEAN and Indian Ocean regions that forms part of the multi-nodal system proposed for the Indian Ocean Tsunami. VII.SEISMIC NETWORK SUB-SYSTEM: The national seismological network will also form an integral part of the national earthquake and tsunami early warning system at the National Centre as well as the Regional Centre as it provides the first level alert on the possible occurrence of tsunami. To ensure that an effective system can be implemented in the region, the primary goal of this sub-system is to provide the Tsunami Early Warning Centre with more broadband, high dynamic range of seismic waveform data in order that the location and magnitude of earthquake could be computed more rapidly and with better accuracy. After the issuance of initial tsunami warning, additional data from the seismic network is also used either to support the decision to continue or cancel the warning. This process is disruptive and has large economic impacts on the country.

VIII.LOCATION OF EXISTING SEISMIC STATIONS: The current real-time digital seismic network is able to detect earthquakes and Accelerometers distributed at nationwide remote stations. Each remote seismological station is installed with a three component weak motion seismometer and a 3 component strong motion accelerometer. The network consists of one field station using digital leased line for real-time data transmission and the remaining 11 field stations with VSAT telemetry and 128kbps digital leased-line communication from the service providers satellite gateway to the central processing center for processing, analysis and dissemination[6]. IX.SEISMIC MONITORING SYSTEM: The central processing centre runs BRTTs Antelope 4.6 data acquisition and processing software on (2) SUN Blade 150 workstations for real-time processing and post processing. The Antelope Real-Time System(ARTS) is also providing automatic event detection, arrival picking, event location and magnitude calculation. It provides graphical display and reporting within near-real-time after a local or regional event occurred. X.DECISION SYSTEM: When an SMS is sent from a mobile handset, it first goes to the SMS server, then to the destination receiver handset. All the source handsets should be registered at the application server(AS), As soon as the AS receives an alert message from a particular source handset or transmitter, it first checks whether it is a P or S wave. An epicenter will first send P wave, the S wave after a few seconds. The SMS server has the capability of sending 40 messages per second, so it takes maximum of a second to alert the pre defined destinations. XI.ALERT DISSEMINATION NETWORK: To disseminate the alert message to the public, the alert receivers could be attached to the civil defense sirens and broadcast systems. The server gives it to the top priority and transmits it to the destination immediately. The speed of earthquakes varies with the soil condition at different locations[7].

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The SMS server will transfer the message at the rate of 40 messages per second.

XV. RESULT: Thus the people who live in the coastal areas in earthquake prone zones can be benefited from this system. Early safety precautions and measures can be taken by using this system. The results produced by the system are faster and accurate. XVI. REFERENCES:

[1].http://ioc3.unesco.org/itic/files/itsu20_doc711.pdf
[2].http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsunami_warning_sy stem. [3].http://ioc3.unesco.org/itic/files/itsu20_doc711.pdf XII. MAIN BENEFICIARIES: 1. Audio alarms can be installed to alert people. Trains could be stopped. Fire stations and hospital operation rooms can be alerted. Emergency generators can be started. XIII. LIMITATIONS: The interface units for accelerometers and handsets are not available in the market. So these have to be developed indigenously. Seismology divisions of various government organizations are working on a similar type of system for the measurement of the earth vibration using accelerometers or seismographs. Eg: Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BARC), Indian meteorological department Institute of Astrophysics. XIV.CONCLUSION: This earthquake alert systems senses earthquake waves, transmits these discrete magnitude values to a central place via.. GSM cell phone network, and uses computer-based decision making to deliver alert signals to the identified receivers placed at different towns and cities for both public and government consumption. The system is simple and could be configured with available resources in the country. Detailed simulation, feasibility study and experimentation are required to optimize the system and reduce the possibilities of false alarm. [4]. way2students.com/wpcontent/uploads/2010/08/TSUNAM.doc. [5]. http://www.nti.org/e_research/e3_9a.html. [6].http://www.iris.edu/news/newsletter/vol7no2/pag e5.htm. [7].http://books.google.co.in/books?id=X8hEt3l1SPQ C&pg=PA612&lpg=PA612&dq=The+speed+of+eart hquakes+varies+with+the+soil+condition+at+differe nt+locations&source=bl&ots=4GfgU9rBzi&sig=3PJJ qRo0RYg7Y_rI0lsvMB99_tk&hl=en&ei=M4w5TZu YBourrAelpvjHCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=resu lt&resnum=1&ved=0CBYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q &f=false. [8]. V. Plessi and F. Bastianini and S. Sedigh-Ali: An autonomous and adaptable wireless device for flood monitoring. [9]. Earthquakes: Simulations, Sources and Tsunamis - Kristy F. Tiampo, Stuart A. Weinstein, Dion K. Weatherley.

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