The United States Geological Survey (USGS) announced a new update to its earthquake alert app that aims to give advance notice seconds before some of the strongest earthquakes hit.
The ShakeAlert Earthquake Early Detection system can detect earthquakes of all sizes, but this update allows the agency to determine the size of the biggest earthquakes faster, so alerts can be sent to people’s phones quicker.
“Seismic stations tell us how fast the ground is moving and these other stations tell us how far it’s moving and by looking at both of them together, we can get a better sense of how those big earthquakes are going to impact a region,” said Robert de Groot, operations team lead for ShakeAlert. “So we have seismometers that pick up the ground motion, we move that information to a processing center in a fraction of a second, we process it, and then we start pushing out the information within seconds to people’s phones.”
De Groot said many factors will go into determining how in advance users will get an alert on their phone
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“One of the factors that determines when people get an alert on their phone is how far they are from the epicenter of the earthquake,” de Groot. “Seconds is generally what people will get before they feel that strongest shaking and really that’s as long as it takes for people to take that protective action to drop, cover, and hold on to be safe.”
As the new technology evolves, the ShakeAlert team is also working with hospitals and transportation teams to ensure automated steps are immediately taken too.
“We’re continuing to expand automated actions like slowing down trains, opening firehouse doors, so we’re working LA Metro, Cedar Sinai and other MetroLink as well to take those automated actions to slow down those trains without people being involved,” he said. “A fraction of a section to shut down that generator, and open that firehouse door is going to be valuable. Not just during the earthquake itself, but also after the earthquake is over.”
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ShakeAlert early detection technology is now up and down the West Coast and can serve as a safety tool for roughly 50 million permanent residents and tourists. The technology is currently in California, Oregon, and Washington.
