Your Android can provide earthquake warnings
Did the earth move for you? It did for Charles Handmer!
While substantial earthquakes are rare in Australia, they do occur and can be dangerous. In some countries this danger is constant, and frequently deadly, so developing earthquake warning systems is a high priority. Predicting earthquakes with any precision is near impossible, but warning systems don’t have to predict them to save lives.
Earthquakes generate seismic waves in the earth’s crust that radiate out from the epicentre at speeds of up to 30,000 kph. In practice that means the first shakes from the September 2021 Victorian earthquake took less than 20 seconds to reach Melbourne and over a minute to reach Sydney. These shaking “P” waves were followed by the more damaging up-and-down “S” waves, about ten and 40 seconds later respectively. That’s enough time to get an early warning out.
Google has been providing earthquake alerts in some
American states for more than a year, after setting out to build the world’s largest earthquake detection network. Using the accelerometers built into most Android smartphones, the system detects seismic waves that might indicate an earthquake. The phone then sends a signal to Google’s earthquake detection server, along with a general location of where the shaking occurred. The server analyses this information from many Android phones to figure out if an earthquake is happening, where it is, and what magnitude it is.
Android Earthquake Alerts System
This effort has created the Android Earthquake Alerts System, which is being rolled out in countries with high earthquake risks. New Zealand and Greece were the first cabs off the rank, with Turkey, the Philippines, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan following. The system issues automatic alerts to users in areas likely to be affected by a nearby earthquake, along with safety suggestions such as drop to your hands and knees then crawl under any shelter available.
Having lived in earthquakeprone countries, I’ve experienced how disconcerting it can be when everything starts moving around you and the realisation dawns that you are in an earthquake. You know that you should get out in the open if possible, or brace in a doorway if trapped inside - the theory is that if the ceiling falls you have some protection, and if the wall falls it will fall away from you - but walking can be impossible. Even a few seconds warning could make a big difference.
Sounds good, but I don’t live in New Zealand...
The Android Earthquake Alerts System might come to Australia with new versions of Android, but that may be some time away. So, can we get an equivalent from the Google Play Store, maybe even in a free app? Time to search and test!
Earthquake Network -
Realtime alerts
This realtime alerts app claims to be the most comprehensive earthquake app available and, in most countries, the only earthquake early warning system able to alert you before the seismic waves arrive. There is an ad-supported free version plus a Pro option, and overwhelmingly positive feedback from users.
Earthquake Network certainly is an impressive app, and covers the alert functions of the Android Earthquake Alerts System plus many additional features including chat with other affected users.