Smartphones can warn earthquakes

Phones equipped with GPS Global Positioning System can have both earthquake early warning functions.

Smartphone capable of early earthquake prediction?

The early earthquake warning system operates based on the delay between two seismic waves . The first wave is called the P wave, which usually only produces a tugging effect. The earthquake causes severe damage from the incoming waves, called S waves. The warning device will detect the P wave and send a warning signal before the S wave arrives. Signals can arrive from a few seconds to a minute, but enough to halt trains, surgeries and help people find shelter.

Earthquake accompanied by tsunami devastating Chile in April 2012. (Photo: Juan González-Carrasco)

"A few seconds can be very useful," Live Science quoted lead author Sarah Minson, an expert with the US Geological Survey.

If the GPS receiver in the phone suddenly shakes in the same direction, the earthquake probability is almost nonexistent. But if several thousand phones simultaneously have this phenomenon at once, the possibility of earthquake will be very high. From the data obtained on the displacement of the ground, the device determines the location and magnitude of the earthquake, and then sends a warning signal.

For earthquakes of magnitude 7 or more, the GPS sensor in the smartphone can issue alerts in seconds . Experts test the system with a computer model to determine the 7th magnitude earthquake along the Hayward Ridge in California, USA, and test GPS data from the Tohoku earthquake in Japan in 2011. Data data from a smartphone detects a one centimeter shift.

This year, they plan to field in Chile. The biggest obstacle, however, is that scientists need access to raw GPS data, which phone manufacturers do not allow. In addition, in order for the phone to transmit a warning, the number of people near the epicenter must be at least a few hundred.