A Seismic Shift in Earthquake Detection: Tracking Early Impact Through the Internet

ATLANTA and PARIS - Digital Element’s IP Intelligence Helps European Seismological Organization Accurately Identify Affected Locations in Less Than 10 Minutes

By tracking the number of hits to its website after an earthquake, the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) (www.emsc-csem.org/), based in Arpajon, France, can accurately measure the impact of the event, in near real time. EMSC is using Digital Element’s IP (www.digital-element.net/) Intelligence technology (www.digital-element.net/our_technology/our_technology.html) to accurately detect the areas affected by an earthquake based on the geographic location of each site visitor.

A number of seismological centers have websites that collect real-time earthquake information, but EMSC has developed an original system to organize the data into “felt maps” (www.emsc-csem.org/imgs/Sarajevo_31032009.gif) that determine where earthquakes are felt, regardless of their magnitude. While traditional seismological procedures can take up to several hours to register the impact of an earthquake, felt maps can provide in-situation information on the impact of an occurrence in less than 10 minutes.

“This approach focuses on the reaction of the population rather than the physical seismological data from the earthquake itself,” said Remy Bossu, Secretary General, EMSC. “Measuring the extent of an earthquake as quickly as possible is critical to determining the impact to surrounding population centers and their infrastructures. Therefore, we needed to have the most reliable source for IP location. We evaluated all vendors in the marketplace and found Digital Element’s IP Intelligence solution to be the most accurate.”

Once an earthquake is felt, witnesses often rush to the EMSC website to find out the cause of the shaking. This is often the first expression of a felt earthquake — a surge in the site’s hit rate. In order to find out where the earthquake was felt, EMSC uses IP Intelligence to identify site visitors’ geographic locations down to a city level. The locations exhibiting increases in visitors are then automatically mapped. The system is also capable of mapping damaged areas, as they are characterized by a significant lack of visitors.

“We have been able to create an amazingly relevant, yet non-traditional application, for our IP Intelligence solution,” said Frank Bobo, Vice President of Business Development for Digital Element. “Even though EMSC has operated felt maps for some time now, we are excited to bring the needed technology capabilities to accurately tie IP addresses to locations across a number of different countries. EMSC’s use of our technology validates the important role geography plays even in the online world.”

Every year, millions of people around the world experience earthquakes. In the last two years, EMSC’s felt maps have been triggered about 40 times for earthquake events in Europe and the Mediterranean, ranging from magnitude 2.7 to 6.1.

About Digital Element

Founded in 1999, Digital Element is the industry pioneer of IP Intelligence, a non-invasive, privacy-sensitive technology that automatically uncovers geographic information, connection speed, domain name, ISP, language and other characteristics about online users based solely on their IP addresses. This knowledge enables online businesses to customize content for more accurate and profitable online interactions, making it ideal for targeted advertising, content localization, geographic rights management, local search and enhanced analytics. Digital Element’s patented IP Intelligence solution with its exceedingly accurate geolocation capabilities is used by industry-leading advertising networks, web publishers, search engines, social networks, e-tailers, analytics platforms, and online enterprises around the world to revolutionize the way people experience the Internet.

Digital Element is a business unit of Digital Envoy, part of Landmark Interactive, a Landmark Media Enterprises Company. For more information about Digital Element, visit www.digital-element.net.

About European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre

The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) is an international, non-governmental, and non-profit association based at the Laboratoire de Detection et de Geophysique (LDG) of the French Atomic Energy Commission in Essonne (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essonne), France. The EMSC’s activities include scientific projects and developments related to seismic monitoring and seismic hazard. In addition to its scientific activities, EMSC aims to improve research and collaboration in seismology, and runs an operational alert system for potentially damaging earthquakes in the Euro-Med region and large events worldwide as part of its real-time earthquake information system available at www.emsc-csem.org.

Source: Digital Element

For Digital Element, Jan Sisko, Carabiner Communications, jsisko at carabinerPR.com, +1-678-461-7438; or For EMSC, Remy Bossu, bossu at emsc-csem.org