Earthquake Detection with tinyML
Abstract
Earthquake detection is the critical first step in earthquake early warning (EEW) systems. For robust EEW systems, detection accuracy, detection latency, and sensor density are critical to providing real-time earthquake alerts. Traditional EEW systems use fixed sensor networks or, more recently, networks of mobile phones equipped with microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) accelerometers. Internet of things edge devices, with built-in tiny machine learning (tinyML) capable microcontrollers, and always-on, internet-connected, stationary MEMS accelerometers provide the opportunity to deploy ML-based earthquake detection and warning using a single-station approach at a global scale. Here, I test and evaluate tinyML deep learning algorithms for earthquake detection on a microcontroller. I show that the tinyML earthquake detection models can generalize to earthquakes outside the training set.
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A Comprehensive Survey on TinyML
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“Researchers in [86] focuse on earthquake detection as a vital initial step in Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) systems.”
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Self-citationA Low-Power Low-cost System for Disaster Locations Detection using ESP32 CAM and TinyML
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- Authors
- Clements, T.
- Affiliations
- United States Geological Survey (US)
- Corresponding author
- Clements, Timothy
- ORCID
- Clements, Timothy
- Venue
- Seismological Research Letters
- Published
- 2023-04-24
- ISSN
- 0895-0695 (ISSN-L)
- 1938-2057
- OpenAlex
- W4376880512
- Cited by
- 10
- References
- 57
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 3
- FWCI
- 0.94
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Seismological Research Letters (publishedVersion)
- Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (GEOMAR) (acceptedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Seismology and Earthquake Studies
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Geophysics › Earthquake Detection and Analysis
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Ocean Engineering › Geophysics and Sensor Technology
- Keywords
- earthquake detection, TinyML, earthquake early warning, MEMS accelerometer, microcontroller, Internet of Things edge devices, model generalization
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