How Google Alerted Californians to an Earthquake Before It Hit

There was an earthquake that was about to hit in the Bay Area. Some of the messages said that you might have felt a bit uneasy. The alert was seen by more than one million people. It arrived just before the ground began to move.

It is not the first time that an earthquake alert has been sent to a device. The alert hit enough phones to get the attention of the larger public. In the past, earthquakes have come without warning, catching people off guard and leaving them without advance notice to take cover. This alert aims to take some of the unpredictability out of earthquakes.

The United States Geological Survey is trying to build an earthquake early warning industry. We are doing things that we have never considered before.

The tech can't predict earthquakes, and the US Geological Survey doesn't think it will be able to predict earthquakes in the future. People usually feel them, but it does detect them early. Someday the alert can be sent out even quicker, giving people more time to get out of harms way.

It's time to roll.

ShakeAlert provides information to state government agencies and third parties when an earthquake begins on the west coast. It has been made easier to find that information in those precious seconds. The company sent push notifications to people in the area of an earthquake without them having to download a separate app.

When an earthquakeTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkia Not everyone in the area will be able to feel these, but a network of 1,300 sensors do. Four sensors are triggered at the same time and send an alert. Stronger S waves, the kind that can cause damage and hurt people, could be on the way if that data is right. Government agencies like the Federal Emergency Management Agency and transit systems will interpret the data and send out warnings.

There are things that can't be done. The closer a person is to the earthquake, the less likely they are to get an alert. The sensors are placed on the west coast. According to de Groot, there will be a total of 1,755 by the year 2025. Tuesday's alert warned of a 4.8-magnitude earthquake, but the measurement was later adjusted to 5.1.