Google's Earthquake Alerts: How Your Android Phone Could Save Lives

Source: BBC News

Google has rolled out a groundbreaking feature that could potentially turn your smartphone into a life-saving device. This new function allows Android users to enable their phones to automatically send data to the Android Earthquake Alerts System if the device detects vibrations that match the primary waves of an earthquake.

When your phone senses these initial tremors, it sends the information to Google's system. By analyzing data from potentially millions of other smartphones in the area, the system can quickly determine if an earthquake is occurring and pinpoint its location. The next step is crucial—sending out alerts to phones in the affected areas, often before the seismic waves have even reached them.

As Marc Stogaitis, a software engineer at Android, aptly put it: “We’re essentially racing the speed of light (which is roughly the speed at which signals from a phone travel) against the speed of an earthquake. And lucky for us, the speed of light is much faster!”

This crowdsourced approach is a game-changer, especially in regions that lack extensive networks of seismometers, which are often expensive to deploy. This technology opens up the possibility of providing early earthquake warnings in remote and economically challenged areas, where such systems were previously unavailable.

Currently, the system is operational in the United States, with regular detections of seismic activity. When these shakes reach certain thresholds, the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) ShakeAlert system triggers warnings, sending alerts to mobile devices in the danger zone.

While this alert system is integrated into Android phones, residents of California, Oregon, and Washington have an additional tool—the MyShake App, developed by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley. Like the Android system, this app transforms stationary smartphones into earthquake detectors, issuing alerts based on the phone's location.

California, known for its seismic activity, experiences around 100 small quakes daily. Though most are too minor to be felt, the state typically sees 15-20 quakes annually with a magnitude of 4.0 or higher.

Globally, over three billion of the estimated 16 billion mobile phones in use run on Android, and this Earthquake Alerts System is now available in more than 90 countries prone to seismic activity.

However, the system isn't without its limitations. In remote areas with few smartphone users and offshore quakes that can lead to tsunamis, the alert system’s effectiveness can be compromised. And while it can provide warnings just seconds before the tremors begin, accurately predicting earthquakes before they occur remains a challenge that science has yet to conquer.