Accelerometers are much less sensitive than seismometers, but have a much greater range, detecting ±2g or more of ground acceleration (things start flying off the ground at 1g, when gravity is overcome). By comparison a seismometer will clip at full scale if you tap it too hard with your finger.
Seismometers are designed to measure ground movements/vibrations caused by earthquakes, excavations, boring, drilling, etc. I've successfully hooked it up and can plot the accelerometer data in three axis. I'm using ADXL345 accelerometer with Raspberry Pi to build a seismograph. Strong ground motion is often to blame for the structural damage that occurs during an earthquake. Technically speaking, a seismometer measures offset or motion, while an accelerometer measures proper acceleration. Is there any way to express these data in the form of the magnitude of an earthquake, of course, at the point of sensing?
The left panel is a comparison of a modern broadband seismometer response and the classic World-Wide Standard Seismic Network (WWSSN) long- and short-period instruments. Seismometer: In contrast to small accelerometers, bulky transducers with large masses and soft springs would have very small natural frequencies. Seismometer outputs (seismographs) are generally in terms of displacement (meters) vs time, while accelerometer graphs will be in terms of acceleration (g-force or metres per second per second (m/s2)) vs time. Seismic waves can be used to map the interior of planets and measure and locate quakes and other motions of the lithosphere (see also Chapters 10.03 and 10.02 , … They record these vibrations as graphs often known as seismographs. The same broad-band response is shown in the right panel, to compare the response with a special short-period instrument, the Wood-Anderson, and an accelerometer. The mechanics involved in both devices are generally similar … If the natural frequency is much smaller than the working frequency, then the amplitude H from above simplifies even more, Seismometers are specialized very low-noise accelerometers to detect seismic waves in planetary bodies. Strong-motion sensors are accelerometers, and are designed to measure the large amplitude, high-frequency seismic waves typical of large local earthquakes. These seismic waves result in the strong ground motion we feel during a large earthquake. Accelerometers are used to measure static or dynamic accelerating forces.
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