Earthquake Prediction

CHALLENGE

Earthquake Prediction

$1 MILLION (Prize amount to be confirmed. Announcement expected for next year)

An earthquake  is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth’s lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in size from those that are so weak that they cannot be felt to those violent enough to propel objects and people into the air, and wreak destruction across entire cities. The seismicity, or seismic activity, of an area is the frequency, type, and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time. The word tremor is also used for non-earthquake seismic rumbling.

At the Earth’s surface, earthquakes manifest themselves by shaking and displacing or disrupting the ground. When the epicenter of a large earthquake is located offshore, the seabed may be displaced sufficiently to cause a tsunami. Earthquakes can also trigger landslides and occasionally, volcanic activity.

In its most general sense, the word earthquake is used to describe any seismic event—whether natural or caused by humans—that generates seismic waves. Earthquakes are caused mostly by rupture of geological faults but also by other events such as volcanic activity, landslides, mine blasts, and nuclear tests. An earthquake’s point of initial rupture is called its hypocenter or focus.

Earthquake prediction is a branch of the science of seismology concerned with the specification of the time, location, and magnitude of future earthquakes within stated limits, and particularly “the determination of parameters for the next strong earthquake to occur in a region.

Prediction can be further distinguished from earthquake warning systems, which upon detection of an earthquake, provide a real-time warning of seconds to neighboring regions that might be affected

Lacking an adequate prediction system earthquakes happens without notice to allow the population of areas involved to leave their houses and seek protection in open areas causing thousands of unnecessary deaths and casualties.

Earthquake Prediction

The solution can include:

This competition calls for policies, systems, technologies, equipment and whatever may be needed to give early warning about earthquake location . Such prediction must have a minimum of 24 hours, indicate possible magnitide and epivcenter withinh 5 Km range.

Proposal:

This is a two phase competition:

Phase 1: Written proposals, (max 30 pages including images) about the technologies and systems that would be utilized will select the five finalist teams that would proceed to phase 2;
Phase 2: To realize the required prototype and experiments under controlled conditions to prove the validity of their concept proposal.