A seismologist uses AI to analyze seismic wave patterns from 8 different earthquake events. Each event generates 1.8 terabytes of raw waveform data. After initial processing, data size is reduced by 40%. If storage costs $0.023 per gigabyte per year, what is the annual storage cost for all processed data?

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 15:30:49 +0000

How AI Transforms Earthquake Data Analysis: Cost Insights from 8 Major Seismic Events The study of earthquakes relies heavily on detecting, capturing, and analyzing seismic wave patterns to better understand tectonic activity and improve early warning systems. Recently, a pioneering seismologist leveraged artificial intelligence to process data from eight major earthquake events, revolutionizing how raw seismic information is handled and stored. Each of the eight 8 earthquakes generated 1.8 terabytes (TB) of raw seismic waveform data. With advancements in AI-driven analytics, the processing workflow dramatically enhances efficiency—enabling rapid pattern recognition while drastically reducing the volume of data stored. After intelligent filtering and compression, the total data size is reduced by 40%, streamlining long-term archival and analysis. Let’s break down the full lifecycle of this data and calculate the annual storage cost.