Seismometers

Seismometers are instruments that measure motion of the ground, including those of seismic waves generated by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and other seismic sources. Records of seismic waves allow seismologists to map the interior of the Earth, and locate and measure the size of these different sources.

The word derives from the Greek σεισμός, seismós, a shaking or quake, from the verb σείω, seíō, to shake; and μέτρον, métron, measure and was coined by David Milne-Home in 1841, to describe an instrument designed by Scottish physicist James David Forbes. The seismometer was invented by the Chinese polymath Zhang Heng in AD 132 during the Han dynasty. The first Western description of a seismometer comes from the French physicist and priest Jean de Hautefeuille in 1703. The modern seismometer was developed in the 19th century by John Milne, James Alfred Ewing and Thomas Gray while working as oyatoi gaikokujin for the Meiji government in Japan.

Seismograph is another Greek term from seismós and γράφω, gráphō, to draw. It is often used to mean seismometer, though it is more applicable to the older instruments in which the measuring and recording of ground motion were combined than to modern systems, in which these functions are separated. Both types provide a continuous record of ground motion; this distinguishes them from seismoscopes, which merely indicate that motion has occurred, perhaps with some simple measure of how large it was.

The concerning technical discipline is called seismometry, a branch of seismology.

A simple seismometer that is sensitive to up-down motions of the earth can be understood by visualizing a weight hanging on a spring. The spring and weight are suspended from a frame that moves along with the earthʼs surface. As the earth moves, the relative motion between the weight and the earth provides a measure of the vertical ground motion. If a recording system is installed, such as a rotating drum attached to the frame, and a pen attached to the mass, this relative motion between the weight and earth can be recorded to produce a history of ground motion, called a seismogram.

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