AI is Helping Seismologists Detect Earthquakes They'd Otherwise Miss (theverge.com) 32
Using the same tools we use for voice detection, scientists are uncovering tiny earthquakes hidden in the data. From The Verge: Oklahoma never used to be known for its earthquakes. Before 2009, the state had roughly two quakes of magnitude three and above each year. In 2015, this tally rocketed to more than 900, though it's calmed since, falling to 304 last year. This sudden increase is thought to be caused by the disposal of wastewater by the state's booming fracking industry, and it's caught seismologists off-guard. As a historically quake-free area, Oklahoma doesn't have enough equipment to detect and locate all of these quakes, making it hard to investigate their root cause. The solution proposed by Perol and his colleagues from Harvard University's engineering and earth sciences departments is to use artificial intelligence to amplify the sensitivity of the state's earthquake detectors, otherwise known as seismographs. In a paper published today in the journal Science Advances, they show how effective this technique is -- capable of detecting 17 times more earthquakes than older methods in a fraction of the time. The method is similar to the voice detection software used by digital assistants like Alexa and Siri.
Re:Oklahoma never used to be known for its earthqu (Score:5, Informative)
then we fraked the fuck out of it
protip oklahoma - use museum putty to hold things on shelves
The USGS calls bullshit on you.
"Fact 1: Fracking is NOT causing most of the induced earthquakes. Wastewater disposal is the primary cause of the recent increase in earthquakes in the central United States.
Wastewater disposal wells typically operate for longer durations and inject much more fluid than hydraulic fracturing, making them more likely to induce earthquakes. In Oklahoma, which has the most induced earthquakes in US, only 1-2% of the earthquakes can be linked to hydraulic fracturing operations. The remaining earthquakes are induced by wastewater disposal."
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/re... [usgs.gov]
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TFS said 'This sudden increase is thought to be caused by the disposal of wastewater by the state's booming fracking industry'. Sure, the fracking itself isn't causing the earthquakes but it does cause the waste water disposal which wouldn't exist without the fracking.
Regarding botulism, do you think the bacterium itself is blameless because it only produces the deadly toxin and is itself harmless? It wasn't the fall, it was the impact? It wasn't the bomb, it was the overpressure, the heat and the fallou
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This is a distinction without a difference:
The wastewater is created as part of the fracking process.
The wastewater is disposed of by injecting it into the earth.
The wastewater injection is causing the earthquakes.
Therefore the cause of the earthquakes is fracking.
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This is a distinction without a difference:
The wastewater is created as part of the fracking process.
The wastewater is disposed of by injecting it into the earth.
The wastewater injection is causing the earthquakes.
Therefore the cause of the earthquakes is fracking.
Nice logical progression but the USGS disagrees with you. Take it up with them.
Are the programmers going to be arrested... (Score:1)
if there's an earthquake they didn't predict? Oh wait. We're not Italy.
Is this really AI? (Score:3)
They are running a filter to remove background seismic activity so that they can better read the signal from earthquakes that are not close to the seismograph. New application of old techniques to all appearances. Not knocking the technology just worried that they are slapping the label AI on anything vaguely clever that uses a computer.
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No.... that's blockchain.
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No.... that's blockchain.
Ah! I get it! So it's the blockchain miners who are causing all the earthquakes with all their digging.
AI, AI, while it is NOT AI! It is ML! (Score:2)
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AI (Score:1)
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How about removing all funding for these attention-seeking seismologists . Then there will be no earthquakes = no problem = Frack On!
Umm, AI? (Score:2)
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Be still my beating heart!
This isn't AI and it's not even new... I happen to KNOW that this kind of thing was being done back in 1993 with audio signals doing spectral analysis of a signal to pick out noises BELOW the noise floor of the audio that NOBODY could hope to hear. We even used neural nets to compare these noises in different sources and detect things like direction or even locations of the source if you had multiple microphones providing you audio... Worked like a charm back in '93.
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The real story here is Natural Stupidity (Score:1)
In other words, F**king Fracking, which in the end means the destruction of human habitat.
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not Artificial Intelligence.
In other words, F**king Fracking, which in the end means the destruction of human habitat.
"Fact 1: Fracking is NOT causing most of the induced earthquakes. Wastewater disposal is the primary cause of the recent increase in earthquakes in the central United States.
Wastewater disposal wells typically operate for longer durations and inject much more fluid than hydraulic fracturing, making them more likely to induce earthquakes. In Oklahoma, which has the most induced earthquakes in US, only 1-2% of the earthquakes can be linked to hydraulic fracturing operations. The remaining earthquakes are indu
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Fracking creates wastewater and there's no other way to deal with it, so you're wrong. They reinject it everywhere fracking occurs, bar none. The alternative is tailing ponds which are just as bad though not for quakes.
I can't be wrong since I didn't express an opinion. I relayed the opinion of the USGS.
Take it up with them, I'm sure people with your depth of experience are in great demand there.
It's also helping... (Score:2)
Was that an eartquake? (Score:2)