NEW YORK, USA: Computer servers in data centres could be doing more than responding to requests from millions of Internet users.

IBM researchers have patented a technique using vibration sensors inside server hard drives to analyze information about earthquakes and predict tsunamis.

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“Almost all hard drives have an accelerometer built into them and all of that data is network accessible,” says Bob Friedlander, master inventor at IBM. “If we can reach in, grab the data, clean it, network it and analyze it, we can provide very fine-grained pictures of what’s happening in an earthquake.”

The aim is to accurately predict the location and timing of catastrophic events and improve the natural disaster warning system. Seismographs that are widely used currently do not provide fine-grained data about where emergency response is needed, say the researchers.

IBM’s research is not the first time scientists have tried to use the sensors in computers to detect earthquakes. In 2008, seismologists at the University of California at Riverside and Stanford University created the Quake Catcher Network.

The idea was to use the accelerometers in laptops to detect movement. But wading through mounds of data from laptops to accurately point to information that might indicate seismic activity is not easy. For instance, how do you tell if the vibrations in a laptop accelerometer are the result of seismic activity and not a big rig truck rolling by?

That’s why IBM researchers Friedlander and James Kraemer decided to focus on using rack-mounted servers.

“When you are looking at data from a rack that’s bolted to the floor it’s not the same as what you get from a laptop,” says Kraemer. “Laptops produce too much data and it’s liable to have a lot of noise.”

Servers in data centres can help researchers get detailed information because they know the machine’s orientation, its environmental conditions are much better controlled and the noise generated by the device tends to be predictable.