Android Earthquake Alerts from your smartphone: A global system for early warning

Amazing stuff! Your smartphone a lifesafer!

"... turned the global network of Android smartphones into a powerful, pocket-sized earthquake detection system to help supplement official warnings systems. Over the last four years, the Android Earthquake Alerts system has detected thousands of earthquakes and sent alerts to millions of people in nearly 100 countries, often giving them the crucial moments they need to take cover before the shaking arrives.

Evaluation of thousands of earthquakes, analysis of specific earthquake examples and direct user feedback allows the system to continuously improve its performance in key areas, like magnitude estimation, making the alerts more effective over time. ...

The accelerometer in an Android phone, the same sensor that flips the screen when it’s turned sideways, can also detect the ground shaking from an earthquake. If a stationary phone detects the initial, faster-moving P-wave of an earthquake, it sends a signal to our earthquake detection server, along with a coarse location of where the shaking occurred.

The system then quickly analyzes data from many phones to confirm that an earthquake is happening and estimate its location and magnitude. The goal is to warn as many people as possible before the slower, more damaging S-wave of an earthquake reaches them. ..."

From the abstract:

"Earthquake early-warning systems are increasingly being deployed as a strategy to reduce losses in earthquakes, but the regional seismic networks they require do not exist in many earthquake-prone countries.

We use the global Android smartphone network to develop an earthquake detection capability, an alert delivery system, and a user feedback framework. Over 3 years of operation, the system detected an average of 312 earthquakes per month with magnitudes from M 1.9 to M 7.8 in Türkiye.

Alerts were delivered in 98 countries for earthquakes with M ≥4.5, corresponding to ~60 events and 18 million alerts per month.

User feedback shows that 85% of people receiving an alert felt shaking, and 36, 28, and 23% received the alert before, during, and after shaking, respectively. We show how smartphone-based earthquake detection algorithms can be implemented at scale and improved through post event analysis."

Android Earthquake Alerts: A global system for early warning "Using aggregated measurements from a global network of Android smartphones, we developed a system that detects earthquakes, delivers early warnings to users, and builds user trust with each successful alert."

Global earthquake detection and warning using Android phones (open access)

Fig. 1. Global distribution of earthquakes detected and alerted.