Quake data recorded by school

Science students were worried their school’s seismograph had missed this week’s earthquake.

Pupils at the Minster School, Southwell, thought the measuring device had reset itself at around 1am on Wednesday when the earthquake struck.

It took IT staff and students 90 minutes to discover that the readings were available.

The seismograph was donated to the school by Petroleum Geosystems Ltd as part of a science project after the school’s assistant curriculum team leader for science, Mr Matthew Arnold, attended a seismology in schools course.

It can detect earthquakes around the world and the Minster is part of a network of UK schools providing data to external seismology societies.

“It was touch and go,” said Mr Arnold. “But thankfully the IT department managed to retrieve the data.

“It was a huge relief. I was more worried than when the earthquake happened.”

Mr Arnold said the read-out — the seismogram — showed normal activity until about 12.56am on Wednesday when massive spikes appeared.

He said the earthquake lasted a couple of minutes but people would only have been able to feel movement for about the first ten seconds.

The information gathered at the school will be passed to the British Geological Survey for analysis.

Mr Arnold said it was an exciting event for the school.

“This is something that rarely happens,” he said.

Mr Arnold said the school had recorded earthquakes in other parts of the world but the readings were quite low because the seismic activity was so far away.

He said Wednesday’s quake provided the first major reading since the school started using the equipment in November.