<p>The table below gives you a nice summary snapshot up to 2015.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/6PAwb.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/6PAwb.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>
</blockquote>

<p>Reference:  Kamp, P.J., 2016. Towards an Ultra Sensitive Seismic Accelerometer (Master's thesis, University of Twente).</p>

<p>Sercel accelerometer, the top one in the table, is widely used in Oil and Gas industry, for example, to monitor induced seismicity. Below is an excerpt from the article: "A high-sensitivity MEMS-based accelerometer", by J. Laine and D. Mougenot (2014), The Leading Edge, 33(11).</p>

<p>1 g is about ~10 m/s^2 (9.80665) so 1 ng ~ 10^-8  m/s^2. For the Sercel then 360 ng mentioned in the paper (three times the rms noise level) = 3.6 ^10-6 m/s^2.</p>

<p>Correct me if I am wrong.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/5V9YK.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/5V9YK.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>
</blockquote>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-02-08T18:31:15.047Z
it would be nice to transform those values in ng to m/s² so they can be directly compared with the values given for SEIS
Camilo Rada
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-02-08T20:19:54.713Z
1 g is about ~10 m/s^2 (9.80665) so 1 ng ~ 10^-8  m/s^2. I will add the conversion for the MEMS to my answer
MyCarta
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-02-08T17:27:38.463Z
2019-07-12T00:42:01.377Z
2019-07-12T00:42:01.377Z
MyCarta
<p>NASA recently landed a seismometer on Mars, with what sounds an impressive detection ability, with press reports gushing it is "able to detect vibrations smaller than a hydrogen atom." A more technical description is </p>

<blockquote>
  <p>SEIS [...] is capable of measuring
  accelerations down to <span class="math-container">$10^{-9} m/s^2/\sqrt{Hz}$</span> over frequencies of 0.001 to 10
  Hz and <span class="math-container">$5 \times 10^{-8} m/s^2/\sqrt{Hz}$</span> from 0.01 to 100 Hz</p>
</blockquote>

<p>-- which still seems pretty impressive. How does this compare to typical terrestrial equipment?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-02-09T05:25:15.390Z
these are not typical seismometers so they don't count; [1](https://earthscience.stackexchange.com/q/9192/6031), [2](https://earthscience.stackexchange.com/q/10213/6031)
uhoh
<seismology><instrumentation>
How sensitive are typical seismometers?
JCRM
# How sensitive are typical seismometers?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-02-05)

NASA recently landed a seismometer on Mars, with what sounds an impressive detection ability, with press reports gushing it is "able to detect vibrations smaller than a hydrogen atom." A more technical description is

> SEIS [...] is capable of measuring
> accelerations down to $10^{-9} m/s^2/\sqrt{Hz}$ over frequencies of 0.001 to 10
> Hz and $5 \times 10^{-8} m/s^2/\sqrt{Hz}$ from 0.01 to 100 Hz

-- which still seems pretty impressive. How does this compare to typical terrestrial equipment?

**Tags:** seismology, instrumentation

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: these are not typical seismometers so they don't count; [1](https://earthscience.stackexchange.com/q/9192/6031), [2](https://earthscience.stackexchange.com/q/10213/6031)  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2019-02-08. Score: 3

The table below gives you a nice summary snapshot up to 2015.

> [![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/6PAwb.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/6PAwb.png)

Reference: Kamp, P.J., 2016. Towards an Ultra Sensitive Seismic Accelerometer (Master's thesis, University of Twente).

Sercel accelerometer, the top one in the table, is widely used in Oil and Gas industry, for example, to monitor induced seismicity. Below is an excerpt from the article: "A high-sensitivity MEMS-based accelerometer", by J. Laine and D. Mougenot (2014), The Leading Edge, 33(11).

1 g is about ~10 m/s^2 (9.80665) so 1 ng ~ 10^-8 m/s^2. For the Sercel then 360 ng mentioned in the paper (three times the rms noise level) = 3.6 ^10-6 m/s^2.

Correct me if I am wrong.

> [![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/5V9YK.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/5V9YK.png)

> **Comments:**
> **username_3**: it would be nice to transform those values in ng to m/s² so they can be directly compared with the values given for SEIS  
> **username_2**: 1 g is about ~10 m/s^2 (9.80665) so 1 ng ~ 10^-8  m/s^2. I will add the conversion for the MEMS to my answer  

---

