Early warning systems make great progress with over 5 million alerts issued

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Most Californians know that sinking feeling.

The ground shakes, jolting you to attention. For a second, your mind considers the possibilities: A truck driving past? Someone dropping a heavy object?

But the truth soon becomes clear: an earthquake!

For centuries, people living in earthquake zones have experienced seismic movement. But over the past few years, technological innovations have created another option: an alarm on your smartphone that gives you a few precious seconds to prepare for a tremor.

California began rolling out free earthquake early warning apps about five years ago. In 2024, after several improvements, a series of moderate earthquakes and wider use, the network will finally start to achieve its goals.

On Tuesday, more than 5.4 million early alerts were issued for the 5.2-magnitude earthquake that struck in Kern County about 18 miles southwest of Bakersfield and 14 miles northwest of the unincorporated community of Grapevine.

“Your heart rate is definitely racing, your adrenaline is pumping no matter what,” said Jennifer Lazo, chief of innovation and technology for the Los Angeles Department of Emergency Management, about receiving alerts. “But understanding what the noise means, understanding how to quickly look at the message and then take quick action, that’s what I think is important.”

Lazo got an alert on her phone last Tuesday when she started standing in the lobby of the Hollywood Pantages Theatre during intermission with her mother. She asked her mother to stay seated until she could make sure the quake wasn’t serious.

She and her mother did not feel any significant shaking, but when they returned to their seats they realized that many in the audience felt more shaking.

This was the third time in the past year that many Southern Californians have reported receiving ShakeAlert warnings. Many are amazed that technology can alert them before they feel the shaking, as it did on July 29 with the Mojave Desert quake, which was large enough to be a little scary but not cause major damage.

“It’s great to have a series of these ‘big enough’ earthquakes so we can practice the system” and give “people a chance to get used to earthquake early warning,” said Robert DeGroot, operations team leader for the USGS’s ShakeAlert system, which generates alerts that are distributed to various apps. “That’s really important.”

Scientists want people to get used to these alerts, which they hope will become part of life in California and other earthquake-prone areas on the West Coast.

People said they received a few seconds of warning Tuesday before feeling shaking in places including Anaheim, Long Beach, Pasadena, Redondo Beach, the San Fernando Valley, the San Gabriel Valley, Ventura and west Los Angeles.

Some even reported being warned 30 to 45 seconds before the quake struck. They may have felt the first aftershock — a magnitude 4.5 quake that struck less than a minute after the magnitude 5.2 quake.

In West Los Angeles, DeGroot said his wife saw the alert on her phone first and said, “What is this shaking in Kern County?” He said the initial warning suggested a weak shaking was expected in their home, and maybe 15 seconds later, they felt it — a shaking he described as “a very slight shaking” that lasted about four seconds.

Tuesday’s 5.2-magnitude quake was the largest to hit Southern California in three years. Recent quakes that many people reported feeling were July’s 4.9 quake centered in the Mojave Desert and last year’s 5.1-magnitude quake near Ojai in Ventura County, which struck on the same day a major storm surge from a weakened Hurricane Hilary hit.

Seconds after the quake struck Tuesday night, the early warning system measured the quake at 6.0 on the Richter scale, then downgraded it moments later to 5.7. The U.S. Geological Survey initially reported the quake at 5.3, but later downgraded it to 5.2.

There were, of course, people who received alerts but did not feel the shaking, while others near the epicenter — 20 miles from the source of the earthquake — felt the shaking before receiving the alert.

But that's to be expected: It's a compromise made in order to get alerts to as many people as possible before they feel the quake.

The system works on a simple principle: Vibrations from an earthquake travel through rock at the speed of sound—slower than today’s communications systems. For example, it would take more than a minute for people 150 miles away in Los Angeles to feel a magnitude 7.8 earthquake that starts at the Salton Sea, along the state’s longest fault, the San Andreas Fault.

But many people don’t receive these alerts because their phones don’t have an earthquake early warning app. While Google’s Android operating system comes with a built-in app, Apple’s iOS operating system for iPhones doesn’t.

The governor's office said more than 517,000 alerts have been sent to MyShake users, and De Groot said Google has delivered more than 4.9 million alerts to Android users.

How to get early earthquake alerts

Those with iPhones can get early warning of earthquakes by downloading the free MyShake app, developed by UC Berkeley and offered in partnership with the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, which alerts users in California, Oregon and Washington. San Diego County also offers the free SD Emergency app, which includes the ShakeReadySD earthquake early warning tool.

People who don’t have smartphones or don’t have early warning apps installed can still get earthquake alerts on their cell phones — but only if shaking of a higher magnitude or level occurs in their location. These alerts are sent through the Wireless Emergency Alert system, similar to Amber Alerts.

Android phones with the MyShake or ShakeReadySD apps installed have the lowest threshold for early earthquake warnings: they are set to trigger alerts if an earthquake is estimated to be 4.5 magnitude or higher, and the shaking intensity at the phone's location is expected to be “weak” — defined as level 3 on the Modified Mercalli scale of earthquake intensity.

People without Android phones or apps can still get automatic early warnings through the wireless emergency alert system. However, its limits are a bit more conservative: Alerts are sent to cellphones only if an earthquake is expected to be magnitude 5 or higher and the shaking is expected to be “light,” defined as level 4 on the Mercalli scale.

An unknown number of phones received wireless emergency alerts Tuesday night.

People may remember downloading the earthquake early warning app that the City of Los Angeles released on New Year's Eve in 2018 — ShakeAlertLA — but that app was discontinued at the end of 2020.

Scientists are urging Californians to download early warning apps, and say it’s never a bad idea to have more than one way to get alerts on your phone. MyShake is available for both iOS and Android from Apple.

“It's worth it to get things ready and get this technology and use it,” De Groot said. “It works… It gives us a chance to get used to living” with early earthquake warnings.

Other countries—including Japan, Mexico, Taiwan, and Turkey—have working early warning systems. They are part of life in Japan: Schoolchildren are taught to duck, cover, and hold on when they hear alarms; television programs are interrupted by a familiar bell with an announcer detailing the expected quake; and cellphones automatically broadcast audio alerts.

A 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck off the eastern coast of Japan's southern main island of Kyushu early Thursday, raising fears of a possible tsunami as officials scanned the area for damage.

No major damage was reported, according to local media, and no tsunami was expected in California. The epicenter of the quake was about 550 miles southwest of Tokyo and about 14 miles southeast of Miyazaki.

Taiwan's successful early warning system generated a lot of attention in March, with many expressing amazement at TV journalists who alerted viewers to the strongest 7.4-magnitude earthquake before it reached their studios, and continued broadcasting warnings even as they struggled to stay standing and ceiling lights bumped into each other.

Initial calls for an earthquake early warning system in California began more than a decade ago. Now, officials say, it’s clear that years of investment, made possible in part by support from elected officials in Washington and Sacramento, are finally paying off.

“Our investments in advanced and innovative technologies are paying off,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who announced the launch of the MyShake app in 2019, said in a statement Wednesday. “Efforts like this have allowed us to squeeze vital seconds between when alerts reach Californians’ cellphones and when the ground starts shaking.”

“I urge Californians to download the app, it can save lives,” he added.

Getting the first alert can be a bit of a worry, but the system can help Californians prepare for larger earthquakes.

“It was exciting to see the alerts working in real life and not just a theoretical exercise,” said Lazo of the Los Angeles Department of Emergency Management.

“This shows a lot of hard science that is being worked on that will have a real impact on the public and hopefully make people safer,” she added. “That’s great to see. It’s really a new area for us in earthquake response.”

Los Angeles Times 2024. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Citation: California Earthquake Revolution: Early Warning Systems Make Major Advances, Issue More Than 5 Million Alerts (2024, August 12) Retrieved August 12, 2024 from https://phys.org/news/2024-08-california-earthquake-revolution-early-issuing.html

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