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The city's residents might not have felt the earth move but a high-tech gadget in a Pudsey school did.

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The seismometer at Fulneck School not only registered the quakes on the other side of the globe, it indicated the times they occurred and the force with which they struck.

Thousands of people are feared dead following the two earthquakes in Indonesia – measuring around 7.6 and 7 on the Richter Scale – just hours after an 8.3-magnitude quake triggered a tsunami which hit the Samoan island in the Pacific.

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For members of Fulneck School's Earthquake Club, some of whom had previously only seen their machine register the vibrations of footsteps in the classroom, it has proved a frightening insight into the tragedy.

Daniel Calvert, 13, said: "It's interesting because we can actually have a look at earthquakes instead of just hearing about them on the news. I thought 'wow' we are actually recording one, but then I saw the news and it was terrible."

The machine was given to the school in January as part of a project to encourage more youngsters into science.

Seismometers measure motions of the ground, including seismic waves generated by earthquakes and nuclear explosions.

While most people imagine an old-fashioned device, with a needle marking peaks and troughs on paper, the 21st century gadget sends its data digitally to a computer, which transforms it into graphs.

The University of Leeds secured £120,000 from the Department for Children, Schools and Families to equip around 10 Yorkshire schools with the machines, along with computers to analyse the data.

A level physics student Jacob Lovie said: "Usually you study earthquakes from the '80s or '90s, here we study earthquakes from yesterday."

The machine in Fulneck could not give a precise location for the earthquakes because three seismometers are needed, in various positions around the world – to triangulate the exact spot.

Physics teacher Dr Caroline Neuberg, who has a PhD in volcanology, said seeing the tremors register on a machine thousands of miles away from the quake brought the subject to life for students.

"It shows them that our planet is just one big family.

"It shows them that science is not just one hour in a lesson, it's something that's ongoing."

Next year pupils from Fulneck will travel to the West Indian island of Montserrat – home of the Soufriere Hills volcano, a once-dormant volcano which has erupted numerous times since it exploded in July 1995.

They will be installing a seismometer at a school on the island.