How Bumelerze works
The method behind what Bumelerze shows: where the data comes from, how the maps and damage estimates are made, and where their limits are.
- Earthquake detectedUSGS · EMSC · GEOFON
- One merged feed
- SHAKEmap
- Damage estimate
- Felt reports
Where the data comes from
Live earthquakes come from three networks: USGS, EMSC and GEOFON. Reports of the same earthquake are merged, so it appears once, with its sources. The catalogue holds 150,072 earthquakes since the year 872, from six catalogues: ISC, ISC-GEM, EMME, Onur 2017, KISC and USGS.
- USGS
- EMSC
- GEOFON
Several networks
Matched and merged
One earthquake
Sources shown
What goes into a SHAKEmap
A SHAKEmap shows how strongly the ground shook in each place. Bumelerze computes its own for earthquakes in Kurdistan or felt in Iraq. It combines ground-motion models, nearby seismic stations and people's felt reports. Where stations are few, the models carry more weight.
- Ground-motion models
- Seismic stations
- Felt reports
- IV
- V
- VI
- VII
- VIII
The SHAKEmap
How a damage estimate is made
A probabilistic model combines the mapped shaking with the buildings in each area and their vulnerability classes, A to F. The result is the likely damage to buildings. These are estimates, not certainties, for Kurdistan and Iraq, with no casualty numbers. Tag my building gives your own home's class.
Mapped shaking
- A
- B
- C
- D
- E
- F
Buildings and their classes
A most vulnerable, F strongest
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
Likely damage to buildings
Expected damage grade (IMS-25)
How your reports improve the maps
After an earthquake, tap the picture closest to what you felt. No account is needed. Reports are grouped by area into community intensity, which feeds the SHAKEmap, especially where there are few stations.
Your tap
Grouped by area
Into the SHAKEmap
What comes next
Where Bumelerze is heading. None of this is available yet.
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Alerts and early warning
Alerts about recorded earthquakes near you, or near one more place you choose, are coming soon. Early warning, a warning of a few seconds before strong shaking arrives, is in testing. It is not prediction.
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Safer buildings
Tag my building gives a quick vulnerability class. Detailed building assessment would look closer at how a building is built and its weak points. Structural health monitoring would place sensors in buildings across Kurdistan to see how they respond to shaking.
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A more resilient Kurdistan
Better shaking and damage models, using more local stations, felt reports and building data, bring each SHAKEmap and estimate closer to what happened. The aim: people who understand their risk and know what to do.