The Scholar Seismic Network of the Canary Islands: bringing together science and education in a volcanically active region.

Contemporary advances in consumer electronics and electronics manufacturing have allowed the development of low-cost sensors and dataloggers​​¹. Several groups have leveraged this to develop their own in-house seismic stations, achieving performance comparable to commercial devices and expanding access to expensive scientific equipment in lower- and middle-income regions. Although the resulting sensors are relatively cheap, their development can be complex and somewhat expensive, which is why most of these devices have been developed by institutions in high-income countries​​¹. Additionally, parallel developments by independent groups result in many different devices, tailored to each group's needs and capabilities, but with reduced scalability. 

In this context, the emergence of a commercial, low-cost seismic sensor with clearly defined standards, such as the Raspberry Shake® (RS), a Raspberry Pi-based device, can further expand the use of seismic sensors beyond the professional scientific community, for both educational and amateur purposes. Beyond the worldwide network created by individual RS owners, RS devices have been validated and used for scientific and technical purposes​​². 

Instituto Volcanológico de Canarias (INVOLCAN) plans to deploy an extensive network, with more than 300 RS3Ds devices equipped with 3 orthogonal geophones, throughout educational institutions in the Canary Islands archipelago, conforming a new Canary Islands Scholar Seismic Network (Red Sísmica Escolar Canaria, RESECAN). This network will, on the one hand, promote the geosciences in classrooms by increasing local communities’ awareness of the territory’s volcanic activity and associated risks, and by fostering young students' interest in this field. By leveraging the open-source Raspberry Shake software, students can access RESECAN data and locate local earthquakes. Additionally, INVOLCAN will provide complementary educational materials and promote and support the use of this data for student projects. 

On the other hand, these stations will be integrated into the existing broadband seismic network of conventional stations managed by INVOLCAN (Red Sísmica Canaria, C7). The proposed number of RS3D stations is one order of magnitude more than the current size of C7, and the resulting densification of the sensing coverage will improve seismic monitoring in a volcanically active region with significant volcanic hazards. 

​1. Iribarren Anacona, P. et al. Arduino data loggers: A helping hand in physical geography. Geogr J 189, 314–328 (2023). 

​2. Calais, E. et al. Citizen seismology helps decipher the 2021 Haiti earthquake. Science (1979) 376, 283–287 (2022).