Phones that detect earthquakes

But the sensors are surprisingly sensitive, and they can also act as a mini-seismometer.

Google has introduced a functionality that allows users to allow their phones to automatically send data to the Android Earthquake Alerts System, if their device picks up the vibrations that characterize the primary (P) waves of an earthquake. By integrating data from thousands or even millions of other phones, the system can tell if and where an earthquake is occurring. It can then send alerts to phones in the area where seismic waves are likely to hit, giving an early warning.

And because radio signals travel faster than seismic waves, alerts can reach areas far from the epicenter of the earthquake before shaking begins.

Mark Stogaits, Android software engineer, put it this way: “We’re basically racing the speed of light (which is roughly how fast signals from a phone travel) against the speed of an earthquake. Lucky for us, the speed of light is much faster!”

Since most of the data is crowdsourced, the technology opens up the possibility of monitoring earthquakes in areas without extensive networks of expensive seismometers. This means that it increases the possibility of providing earthquake alerts in the most remote and poorest parts of the world.

In October 2022, engineers at Google saw phones across the San Francisco Bay Area light up with earthquake detection data as seismic waves travel outward from the epicenter.

The current system regularly picks up these vibrations. Recently, on the afternoon of April 4, 2023, a 4.5-magnitude earthquake occurred near Tres Pinos, California, picked up by the ShakeAlert system, which triggered messages on cell phones of uses in the area. Earthquakes are a common occurrence in California, experiencing up to 100 small earthquakes a day. Most of these things are too small to be felt. However, there are usually several larger earthquakes in California annually, with magnitudes greater than 15-20 on the Richter scale of 4.0.

More broadly, of the estimated 16 billion mobile phones in use worldwide, more than three billion Android phones run on them, and the earthquake alerts system is now available in more than 90 countries that are particularly prone to earthquakes.

But the system has its limitations, particularly in remote areas where there are few phone users and in earthquakes that occur abroad, where they can trigger tsunamis. And while it can help to generate alerts a few seconds in advance, the science of predicting earthquakes before they happen remains as elusive as ever. (Read more about how scientists are trying to spot early signs of these natural disasters.)

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