California launches earthquake early warning system it calls best in world

LOS ANGELES - California rolled out the nation's first statewide earthquake warning system on Thursday, designed to detect seismic waves and alert residents through a mobile phone app even before the ground starts shaking.

Governor Gavin Newsom, who urged Californians to download the MyShake app on the anniversary of the devastating Loma Prieta earthquake on Oct. 17, 1989, boasted the program was more sophisticated than early warning systems already used in Mexico and Japan.

"The price of admission to live here is preparation," the governor told a news conference in Oakland, overlooking a freeway bridge built to replace one that collapsed during the Loma Prieta quake, which killed more than 60 people in the San Francisco Bay Area.

"If millions of people (download the app) we will have points of contact, the ability to crowdsource information the likes of which no country in world has advanced," Newsom said.

The governor did not explain how California's earthquake system is the world's most sophisticated.

The launch coincided with a Great Shakeout earthquake drill conducted at Biola University in Southern California, where students across campus practiced the "drop, cover, hold on" technique following a simulated 7.1 temblor.

Newsom said that the California Earthquake Early Warning System, which uses hundreds of seismic sensors to detect fast-moving seismic P-waves from major earthquakes, could give residents up to 20 seconds before the shaking starts.

That time could be used to shut off gas or utility transmission lines or open elevator doors, he said.

P-waves, which travel through the interior of the Earth, arrive before surface waves and at a higher frequency during a temblor. Many animals are able to feel P-waves, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).

In general, communities farthest away from the epicenter of a quake would receive the most advance warning.

Already, the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system in and around San Francisco has connected the early detection network to its rail service to automatically slow down its trains, and reduce the risk of a derailment in the event of a major quake.

The MyShake app, which was designed by University of California, Berkeley, seismologists and engineers, will initially alert users to earthquakes of a magnitude 4.5 or greater in their area.

Warnings are based on a computer program called ShakeAlert operated by the US Geological Survey that analyzes data from seismic networks statewide, calculates preliminary magnitudes, and then estimates which areas will feel shaking, according to the governor's office.

Japan developed the world's most advanced earthquake early warning system after the 1995 Kobe earthquake, based on the same principles of physics as California's.

Officials in Los Angeles County in January introduced a "ShakeAlertLA" mobile phone application that can transmit an early warning to residents who have installed the app, giving them extra seconds to take cover before a major quake hits.

The 6.9 magnitude Loma Prieta quake struck during a national broadcast of the 1989 World Series and experts have said the lighter-than-normal traffic because of the baseball game may have prevented a greater loss of life.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

App shakes up earthquake science by turning users into sensors

NEW YORK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Smartphones could become the makeshift quake detectors of the future, thanks to a new app launched Friday designed to track tremors and potentially save the lives of its users.

MyShake, available on Android, links users to become an all-in-one earthquake warning system; it records quake-type rumblings, ties a critical number of users to a location, and could eventually provide a countdown to the start of shaking.

Its inventors say the app, released by the University of California, Berkeley, could give early warning of a quake to populations without their own seismological instruments.

"MyShake cannot replace traditional seismic networks like those run by the U.S. Geological Survey," said Richard Allen, leader of the app project and director of the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory.

"But we think MyShake can make earthquake early warning faster and more accurate in areas that have a traditional seismic network, and can provide life-saving early warning in countries that have no seismic network."

Earthquake-prone countries in the developing world with poor ground-based seismic network or early warning systems include Nepal, Peru, Pakistan, Turkmenistan and Iran, he said.

The algorithm behind MyShake, developed by a handful of Silicon Valley programmers, relies on the same technology smartphone gamers depend on to sense the phone's orientation, known as the accelerometer, in order to measure movement caused by quakes.

What smartphones lack in sensitivity - they can only record earthquakes above magnitude 5 within 10 kilometres (6 miles) - they make up for in ubiquity.

Currently, 300 smartphones equipped with MyShake within a 110-km square area are enough to estimate a quake's location, magnitude and origin time.

There were some 3.4 billion smartphone subscriptions worldwide in 2015, according to the Ericsson Mobility Report, so the app's creators hope to build a seismic network covering the globe.

"We want to make this a killer app, where you put it on your phone and allow us to use your accelerometer, and we will deliver earthquake early warning," Allen said.

Sophisticated early-warning systems can warn of coming quakes as much as a few minutes before they begin, but cannot stop them causing death and destruction on a large scale.

Nepal is still rebuilding after two separate earthquakes in April and May 2015 that killed 9,000 people, injured more than 22,000 and damaged or destroyed nearly 900,000 houses.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com