Earthquake alert From Smartphones: Google’s New Feature

Arun was lying on the bed and scrolling his facebook. Suddenly a push notification comes , ‘ Warning Earthquake! Nearby! ‘ .

He clicks the notification and finds that an earthquake will happen or may already start happening.

He wakes up from the bed and calls his mom.

He tells her to go to the safest place and gives her the alert.

Then also he contacts some of his friends to make them aware of the alert.

I know may be the story sounds a littlebit crazy.

But trust me i have not stolen it from Netflix sci-fi film.

It’s the future of our reality, thanks to our tiny little handset.

Earthquake is one of the deadliest disaster on earth. It happens on a daily basis now a days all over the world. Sometimes it crosses some boundaries then mankind loose some innocent lifes.

So it will be really great if we get a chance to be aware of this disaster.

Thanks to google we don’t have to wait for the future.

They have already made it happen with their problem-solving mind like always.

Google, the largest operating system owner, has the largest number of smart user.

So the best way they can provide this service is no doubt the android phone.

That may sound so easy, but providing this type of warning is costly.

But Google has promised to launch this service free of cost. That’s awesome, right?

How they started in California?

First, Google started working with the United States Geological Survey ( USGS ) and California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services( Cal. OES ) to send earthquake alert by ShakeAlert directly to android devices in California.

ShakeAlert is devloped formerly by USA’s famous seismologists.

It uses signals from more than 700 seismometers throughout the country, USGS, Cal OES, University of California, Berkeley, California Institute of Technology, and many other seismometers involved in this network.

Together they can produce an alert. You know in this type of situation even a warning before just a few seconds is also helpful.

But ,

How they will manage when it comes to World?

Yeah, Google started with California but they are well aware of what World needs the service too.

In the case of the whole world, Google’s service providing journey will not be a piece of cake.

But, I didn’t say it’s impossible.

Here they will use your handset as a seismometer.

With all your nearby Android devices, Google has formed a virtually big seismometer network.

So boom! your favorite device is now part of the World’s biggest Earthquake Alert System.

How it will work?

Every phone now has an tiny little sensor called accelerometer. Those accelerometer can sense movement. They can identify various kind of waves.

When your phone identifies any time wave of movement they will send the signal to Google’s server.

Google then will check the nearby phones if they are sensing the same signal or not.

If other signals are the same, Google will send a push notification to every device in this location.

Movment doesn’t means you are shaking your phones.

No, here I want to say any type of waves.

There are two types of waves from the center of the earthquake.

The first is P wave or primary wave and the second one is S wave or secondary wave.

The primary wave is so first and it means just the start of the earthquake and the second wave is more deadly in one word the destroyer.

Those accelerometer meters can sense these wave signals, so they will sense the primary signal and give you the alert.

So don’t waste your time cause you will get maybe 1 to 2 minutes or even some seconds to be safe.

But still, it’s early days. It based on mostly California.

Maybe the system is not so accurate now for the whole world. But thanks to light speed it is must faster than an earthquake.

Signals can run in light’s speed. So we get here a little bit of game against earthquake.

How you will get it in your device?

Still Google doesn’t confirm which device will get the feature.

But still, Google has not planned for a big system update they want to provide it through some small service update.

That may be a sign that Google is targeting to reach as many smartphones as possible.

As of now you can search ‘ earthquake ‘ or ‘ earthquake near me ‘ in Google.

Then you will find if it is happening along with some helpful resources like what to do during this deadly disaster.

Invention Process of Google Earthquake alert:

Google worked globally with some famous Seismology and Earthquake experts Dr. Richard Allen ( spends half of his life for finding the early alert system for earthquake), Dr. Qingkai Kong and Dr. Lucy Jones to devlop and provide this free of cost Earthquake Alert System throughout the world.

The beginning is great.

Maybe in the future, it will reach more countries and will become more accurate.

Google has already provided the hope we needed.

Maybe in near future, we will be one step ahead of the earthquake.

Are you excited about this technology?

Have you enjoyed it?

Do you have any questions?

Share your thoughts in the comment section below.