Earthquake early warning systems save lives. It is of great
importance that networked systems of seismometers be equipped with
reliable tools to make rapid determinations of earthquake
magnitude. We have designed an algorithm that detects as well as
analyzes the incoming first arrival by way of a discrete wavelet
transform. The speed with which the determinations can be performed,
the detection hit rates, and the correlation of the wavelet
observables to the earthquake magnitude suggest that our procedure is
the most effective to date and holds enormous potential for its
implementation on fully automated systems.
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