Epicentral+

Epicentral+ is an education app designed to allow you to use your iPad to explore global earthquake (and volcanic) activity, including the ability to download near real-time seismograms from thousands of seismic observatories. Monitor seismic activity (large global earthquakes, aftershocks sequences, swarms, etc.) the way experts do - by observing seismic waves arrive at the many real-time seismic observatories operating around the planet.

You can view global summaries and explore regional patterns in seismicity using the last seven days of earthquake location and size data served by the U.S. Geological Survey.

You can also view research-quality seismograms in near-real time (updated every few minutes). Seismograms from around the world are accessible and a broad set of seismic "station" sets are provided to help users get started viewing seismograms from their particular region of interest. The seismograms can be shown on external VGA compatible displays (using a standard iPad/VGA adapter).

Annotations on the dynamic earthquake map and the seismogram display are useful for explaining the tectonic background of an earthquake or discussing the seismic wave characteristics to students.

The seismograms are acquired from data servers created and maintained by the IRIS Consortium (a cooperative organization of mostly academic institutions with research expertise and interests in seismology) with funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation.

For more examples and information, please visit http://epicentral.net - look at the "Channel Sets Blog" for specific examples of seismogram downloads.