THE EARTHQUAKE that hit central China last week has devastated the area and killed thousands. The 7.9 magnitude quake toppled buildings, schools, hospitals and has left the Sichuan province and surrounding areas in ruins with millions made homeless and billions of euros in damage.
As this terrible tragedy was unfolding in the middle of a school day in China, it was 8am here in Ireland and an amazing machine sitting in a classroom in Scoil Chonglais, Baltinglass, began picking up and recording the faint tremors which, 15 minutes previously, had caused mayhem and half a world away.
The seismograph is an ultra-sensitive machine that picks up tremors or move-ments in or on the ground and when the 7.9 quake was unleashed from the depths of the earth, the tremors moved like ripples across the globe causing the seismograph to spring into action in an empty room in west Wicklow.
Stephen Gammell, the physics teacher in Scoil Chonglais, has managed to bring the seismograph to the school on loan from the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies. The Institute are sending out the machines to schools in a bid to get students interested in subjects like geology and physics. The Baltinglass School is the first in the country to have this machine on their premises and Stephen says that there were a lot of shocked students on the morning of the quake.
“I was alerted to the earthquake when I got a text alert at around 8am. I signed up to the alert system so when a major earthquake occurs I get a text. I went down to the room and checked the machine and you could see the vibrations being picked up that were coming from the earthquake in China. When school started I brought different classes down throughout the day and they were shocked and amazed,” he said.
Stephen says that since the arrival of the seismograph in the school, the interest and enthusiasm to learn about it has been very impressive and the machine will be used as part of students’ Young Scientist projects next year at the school. The seismograph will be located at the school for a year.
“The second years and fifth years are really involved with it,” said Stephen. “They are really interested and whenever there’s a class about it, I get bombarded with questions. It’s an amazing machine that looks so basic and simple,” he added.
