USGS Testing Smartphones for Earthquake Warning System

The United State Geological Survey are testing smartphones for an earthquake early warning system.

"The hardware is really good, shockingly good," said Sarah Minson with the USGS. "It can detect movement of the Earth displacement with great accuracy."

Researchers said GPS is one key feature, and another is crowdsourcing -- literally using thousands of cell phones to improve the accuracy of an earthquake's location.

Minson said smartphones near an earthquake that detect motion can locate the temblor and send that warning further away to areas that have not yet felt the shaking.

A simulation looked at a big quake along the Hayward Fault and found a cell phone alert came within five seconds, enough time for people to duck or brace themselves.

The system currently only looks at large quakes of magnitude 7.0 or higher.

A pilot program was just funded in Chile where 7.0 quakes have been detected along the coast.

"Most of the world's high-risk population for earthquakes has no protection whatsoever," Minson said. "But cell phones are increasingly ubiquitous this gives us an opportunity to protect people who might not be protected."

California is already testing another public warning system called Shake Alert. Scientists said the smartphone system could be a supplement and could be implemented quicker, offering users critical seconds to prepare.

"A few seconds is enough time to stop something you don't want to do during an earthquake," Minson said.

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