Feature request - automated local hypocenter location function

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I wish I there was automated hypocenter location for small magnitude local quakes.

I originally purchased the Raspberry Shake seismometer hoping to see where the local small quakes were occurring, in 3D. I wanted to see if they might define a local fracture zone. I tried using the SWARM software but (a) it’s a bear to use, and (b) it’s pointless given the imprecise decimated/generalized station locations that I have access to.

I feel it ought to be possible to have an automated picker run by RaspberryShake servers that picks likely quakes that correlate with the nearest, say, 5, seismometers, using the precise locations that are not public. Using a default velocity model it ought to be possible for an automated x,y,z location and magnitude to be computed provided 3 or more stations show a correlated event. Results could be caveated to the effect the locations/magnitudes are preliminary and automated, not reviewed by a seismologist for accuracy. The results could be displayed on the map as a distinct layer and/or symbol.

I’m guessing that if it were that easy you’d be doing it already, but this sounds like something AI might help with.

Anyhow, I think it would make owning a Raspberry Shake much more interesting than just waiting for a big global event and then seeing if I recorded it on my device.

Cheers!

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Hello Howard, and welcome back to the community!

This is a very interesting suggestion! Thank you for taking the time to elaborate on all your lines of thought.

Yes, it is probably something that a properly trained system could help us set up, as monitoring super-local events worldwide in this way requires quite a bit of dedicated processing power.

I have passed everything to our software/server teams so they can keep this future project on their radar.

Thank you again!

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Even a semi-automated user-initiated approach would be good - user picks a point on a trace and the app asks: “check if this correlates with nearby seismometers?” and user clicks “Yes” then server selects data within a time bracket from nearby seismometers that makes sense based on separation and just processes those data.