Seismometers and earthquakes at the Maker Faire Rome 2015 #MFR15

We are about to come back to Rome to attend the Maker Faire. You can find us at INGV stand –  pavilion I, booth 12 – with a prototype of a “Slinky” seismometer consisting of a mass suspended on a slinky spring , attached to a rigid solid structure laying on the ground. During earthquake’s shaking  the rigid structure moves accordingly, but the mass remains stationary due to its inertia. The mass, which is a powerful magnet, oscillating within a coil induces voltage variations acquired by AdaFruit ADS1115 analog to digital converter connected to an Arduino Uno. The low cost of the components and the ease of implementation make this system an excellent candidate for a school project.

Slinky seismometer revealing vertical ground displacement.

A second seismic station will be operating in Pisa connected to the Mindsets UK SEP seismometer. We have already described how it works in this post.

At the INGV booth you can also find the following projects: a drone equipped with instruments realized with FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) printer in PLA (polylactic acid) for volcanic monitoring, 3d prints of Colli Albani DEM (Digital Elevation Model). Moreover, a connection to the seismic operative room will be active to follow the real time seismic activity.

Interested people can also listen to the researchers tell their projects and the results of their research. Here is the program and links to the abstracts.

Saturday 17 October – 12.30 Room 6
Antonio Caramelli – “Printing digital elevation models: tridimensional topographic maps”

Saturday 17 October – 14.30 Room 9
Alessandro Amato – “Earthquakes 2.0: from the seismometer to the web”

Sunday 18 October – 13.30 Room 7
Carlo Giunchi – “How to record earthquakes (and more) using Makers tools”

Sunday 18 October alle 17.00 Room 7
Giovanni Romeo – “Lusi from the sky with drones”

We look forward meeting you at Maker Faire at the University La Sapienza, October 16th to 18th!