Google is expanding its seismic detection system to Greece and New Zealand

Google was first launched in the US and is now expanding its Android-based earthquake detection and warning system to Greece and New Zealand. Users will receive earthquake warnings on their phones, giving them time to reach safety. Earthquakes will not be detected by seismographs but by the phones themselves.

Image credit: Flickr / Richard Walker

It is the first time the tech giant has dealt with everything from earthquake detection to warning individuals. Cell phones will first sense the waves generated by the earthquakes, then Google will analyze the data and send an early alert to people in the affected area. Users will receive the alert automatically, unless they unsubscribe.

When Google launched the service in California, it first worked with the US Geological Survey and the California Governor’s Office for Emergency Services to send out earthquake alerts. This feature became available later in Oregon and will now expand to Washington in May – and eventually to more states in the United States.

Cell phones are already equipped with an accelerometer that can detect movement. The accelerometer can also detect primary and secondary earthquake waves, acting like a “mini seismometer” and forming a network to detect earthquakes. Seismographs are devices used to detect the movement of the Earth.

Traditional warning systems use seismometers to interpret the magnitude and magnitude of an earthquake, and send a warning via a smartphone or loudspeaker to residents. Even if they come just seconds before the earthquake strikes, these warnings can save valuable time to take shelter. But developing seismometers can be difficult and costly.

This is the reason why a warning system that can count on smartphones has so much potential. Richard Allen, a seismologist at the University of California, Berkeley, told Science magazine that Google’s interest in building earthquake-sensing capabilities directly into Android phones was an enormous, or, as he calls it, “no-brainer” opportunity.

“It would be great if there were systems based on seismometers everywhere that could detect earthquakes,” Mark Stugaitis, chief Android software engineer at Google, told The Verge last year. Because of the costs and maintenance, he says, “it’s not really practical and it’s unlikely to have global coverage.”

Earthquakes are a known threat in Greece and New Zealand, where the Google service is published. Greece is spread across three tectonic plates, while in New Zealand, the Pacific plate collides with the Australian plate. Neither country has published an operational warning system, creating an opportunity for the tech giant.

Caroline Francois Holden, an independent seismologist who worked until recently at GNS Science, tells that many earthquakes in New Zealand originate overseas, where there are very few phones. That might make Google’s system less than ideal. “Any earthquake early warning system must be designed with this in mind,” she said.

There are other restrictions, too. Those closest to an earthquake will not receive much advance warning as they will be the first to detect an earthquake. But their phones will help send an alert to others at a great distance, giving them a crucial time to take shelter. But since Android is the flagship operating system for smartphones, this service will likely have a lot of room to grow.

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