NASA quake contest seeks coders, computer scientists
Source: Mike Moffitt
NASA wants to facilitate research into the causes of distinct ultra-low frequency (~0.01-1.0 Hz) electromagnetic signals emanating from the earth near earthquake epicenters in the weeks leading up to some moderate and large events.
Got a talent for devising algorithms or writing software code?
You could win $25,000 in NASA's new "Quest for Quakes" challenge if your work can be used to search through data and identify electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) that may precede an earthquake.
That information could give people living in earthquake zones precious time to find safety ahead of a potentially devastating temblor.
The idea that electromagnetic waves originating from the ground near quake epicenters could act as a bellwether for earthquakes is not new. But it has yet to be proved.
"Developing a reliable approach that can separate potential earthquake-induced electromagnetic pulses from the myriad of natural and anthropogenic sources has been a significant challenge," said Craig Dobson, program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "We look forward to seeing the innovative ideas from this competition and learning more about this controversial phenomenon."
The challenge opened for registration earlier this week. Competitors will be able to submit entries from Monday, July 27 at 1 p.m. ET through Monday, Aug. 9 at 1 p.m. ET.
NASA said that contestants will be provided with electromagnetic signal data collected over three-month periods from multiple sensors in the proximity of past earthquakes. Control data with no earthquakes also will be included. Coders will have two weeks to develop a new approach to extract the signals and identify potential earthquake precursors. Individuals or teams developing winning approaches will share a $25,000 prize.
It has been theorized that fracturing rock in the Earth's crust creates an electrical charge pulse that travels to the land surface and manifests itself as a small change in the local magnetic field. But various human and natural electromagnetic "noise" sources, such as lightning, solar storms, commuter trains and traffic can mask or mimic EMPs. Filtering out this static has proved daunting.
The data for this competition was provided by the QuakeFinder group, a humanitarian research and development project by Stellar Solutions, Inc., Palo Alto, California.
Amazon Web Services has contributed a research grant for approximately three terabytes of high-frequency magnetometer data and computational resources to be used by contestants.
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