Earthquake experts say ShakeAlert—an early warning system for strong earthquakes—is already helping people prepare for catastrophic tremblers, but it might take more practice for some residents.
After hearing an alert, millions of people in the Golden State have grabbed their cellphones during the 13 strong earthquakes that struck Southern California this year, but many of them spent the next few seconds staring at their phones instead of taking cover, according to experts.
ShakeAlert—rolled out in 2022 by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)—detects ground movement when an earthquake first starts. The software works with apps and government systems serving about 50 million residents and tourists in California, Oregon, and Washington.
Within a few seconds, the system works with partners to warn residents about strong incoming earthquakes and tells them to “drop, cover, and hold.”
“It gives you a sense of the magnitude,” de Groot told The Epoch Times.
The system is constantly being improved to add precious seconds and more features to the alerts, he said.
If a strong earthquake happened today, the ShakeAlert system would read the ground movement in one of its three processing centers, located in Southern California, Northern California, and Seattle. In a matter of seconds, the system would send a package of data to its partner organizations, describing the location, size, and how much shaking is expected, according to de Groot.
Alerts are then sent out to warn residents, as well as slow down trains, open firehouse doors, or close valves to protect water systems.
“We continue to improve the under-the-hood stuff,” de Groot said. “Anything we can do to shave off a fraction of a second is going to be helpful to us.”
Education and Awareness
The USGS is spending a lot of money on messaging and making sure that people’s interaction with the system results in saving lives.“Our goal is to improve education and training to make sure people use those alerts,” de Groot said.
It might take more practice for people to respond automatically to the earthquake warnings, instead of staring at their phones, some experts say.
“Many of us know what to do during an earthquake, but when the time comes, we freeze,” Abhijit Ghosh, associate professor of geophysics at the University of California–Riverside, told The Epoch Times. “We often get into the panic mode.”
“If you even get 10 seconds [warning], you have time to figure out where the strongest desk or furniture is, so you can get under it and hold onto it,” Ghosh said.
Other actions resulting from the ShakeAlert can also save lives, he said. For instance, trains will be shut down, planes won’t take off, and doctors will stop surgeries.
“You can imagine all kinds of situations where this can be really helpful and actually save lives,” Ghosh said.
The Los Angeles International Airport was one of the first locations to test the ShakeAlert system in September 2021, giving travelers and employees a warning before quakes strike. During the pilot program, operators tested the possibility of automatically shutting down the airport’s fuel hydrant system to protect jet fuel from flowing during a major quake.
Similar earthquake alert systems are in use in Japan, China, and Mexico.
Although scientists are still far away from predicting major quakes, the early warning system is a valuable tool, Ghosh said.
