Earthquake early warning system
ShakeAlert, a US earthquake early warning system, went into operation in California in October.
It detects when an earthquake is on the way and will sound its alarm seconds before it happens. As designed, the system will warn vital infrastructure such as power plants in order to remain intact. In the future, it will alert citizens about earthquakes, through their mobile phones.
The US Geological Survey (USGS) set up the system of detection sensors. First concentrated in Southern California, it will expand to Western US, states of Oregon and Washington.
The new system is based on detecting the P waves of an earthquake, which travel faster than the slower destructive secondary waves that follow. Using the P waves as a guide, the system aims to provide a warning before strong S waves arrive. It sends out electronic warnings just before that happens.
Warning time for an earthquake can be as little as 10 seconds. Initial hopes that we would have a one-minute warning before the earthquake turned out to be unfounded. As the earthquake progresses along a fault, ShakeAlert will update their electronic warnings so that changes to the predicted magnitude are made. The app updates by tracking these changes with an algorithm
As ShakeAlert’s chief scientist, USGS geophysicist Doug Given of the USGS, said, “even a few seconds of early warning is enough to get you somewhere to burrow in and take cover.” However, not all seismologists agree to the precision of some predictions that can be made from the start of an earthquake. Hence, they resist its use so far.
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Author: PC-GR
The World of Technology
