Android smartphones will be able to warn the population when a strong earthquake is about to happen: here’s how it works
The huge spread of smartphones running the Android operating system could one day save thousands of lives in case of an earthquake. At least that’s what Google believes, as it has launched an ambitious multi-step project that aims to turn smartphones into earthquake information tools, initially, and even mini-seismographs, later.
Google calls it the “Android Earthquake Alerts System” and has already launched it in the United States, in collaboration with the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and the California State Emergency Office. In the coming months the service will be expanded to the rest of the United States and other countries around the world, with a development plan that is increasingly complex and that also takes advantage of the existing ShakeAlert system developed by various American institutions and universities. In the first phase, Android smartphones will be used only to send alert notifications to the population, while in the second phase they will be used to detect seismic tremors in areas of the world where there are not enough seismographs.
Android Earthquake Alerts System: Phase 1
The first phase of the Android Earthquake Alerts System involves sending alerts to users when seismographs detect a tremor. Earthquakes usually don’t consist of a single tremor but a series of subsurface movements. The first, called the “primary wave” (P Wave), is usually faster and less strong and is often not even felt by the population. The second telluric movement, called “secondary wave” (S Wave) is instead slower and more powerful and is the one that does the bulk of the damage. If the user receives a notification immediately after the primary wave he has time to get to safety while waiting for the secondary wave.
Android Earthquake Alerts System: Phase 2
The second phase of the Android Earthquake Alerts System involves the use of smartphones as real small seismographs. But not right away: there will be an intermediate phase in which Google will record any spikes in localized online searches. If many users search together for words like “earthquake”, “earthquake” or similar in a certain territory not covered by seismographs, this data will be processed by the algorithms and, if it is indeed plausible that there has been a P Wave, notifications will be sent.
The actual Phase 2 of the Android Earthquake Alerts System, instead, involves the use of accelerometers and other sensors of Android smartphones to detect any small movements of the ground. If thousands of smartphones send similar data, then it’s very likely that they will have detected a P Wave and an alert will be raised.