gravity detector

MaryW commented on the word gravity detector

Farther east along the ridge, Geoff Brown was fiddling with his gravity detector. Brown was a soft-spoken British geophysicist with long white hair and matching beard. He had brought with him an aluminum box the size of a car battery that he hoped could be used to track molten magma as it rose to the surface of a volcanic vent. The instrument detected infinitesimal changes in gravity, and because magma is lighter than solid rock, Brown was hoping to tell by testing the gravity field beneath Galeras if there was an eruption on the way . . .

Joining Brown in his work and watching him inspect his gravity box were two Colombians . . .

Geoff Brown sat his gravimeter on a makeshift stand, turned and twisted the dials, put his nose right up to the instrument, checked the readings, and took a few notes.

Victoria Bruce, No Apparent Danger: The True Story of Volcanic Disaster at Galeras and Nevado Del Ruiz (New York: HarperCollins, 2001),  ch. 9

Geoff Brown was next. The British scientist was anxious to get more familiar with his new gravity instrument and be sure it was working properly—he had been out working the previous day collecting gravity data from the center of Pasto to the top of Galeras, and the numbers his device had recorded had seemed suspect.

. . .

"He told me that the gravity apparatus wasn't working. . . ."

Id., ch. 10.

("Gravimeter" is the term found in my New Oxford American Dictionary.)

May 1, 2016