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When a patient is having a seizure, these lines jump up and down dramatically like a seismograph during an earthquake -- a signal that is easy to recognize.

When the edge of two tectonic plates shift to produce an earthquake, the seismic waves it emits are measured by seismographs all over the world.

These anomalies can be observed when seismographs pick up signals from earthquakes.

Eventually, the researchers want to integrate the system with physics-based models, which could be important where data is poor, or places such as Cascadia, where the last major earthquake happened hundreds of years before seismographs.

The technology might bear little resemblance to Palmieri’s electromagnetic seismograph, and his heroics are no longer needed in a world where scientists can monitor volcanoes safely from afar.