Google allows the massive Android scale to track earthquakes based on Android phones.
Going back in time, the ARS portal in 2016 reported an interesting use for the sensor packages they carry on their phones every day our wise – earthquake detection. Accelerators on your phone make enough seismometer passable, and along with location data and ample users, you can detect earthquakes and alert users as shocks roll.
The University of California-Berkely, together with funds from the state of California, built an app called “MyShake” and gave birth to a free, effective earthquake detection network, at least, it was born for the people who installed the app.
What if the earthquake detection had just been introduced into the operating system? This is the question that Google will answer, with today’s announcement of the “Android Earth Alert System”. Google will build what it calls “the world’s largest earthquake detection network” by detecting earthquake detection on almost every Google Play Android phone.
All smartphones come with tiny accelerators that can sense earthquakes. They’re even sensitive enough to detect the P-wave, which is the first wave that comes out of an earthquake and is typically much less damaging than the S-wave which comes afterward. If the phone detects something that it thinks may be an earthquake, it sends a signal to our earthquake detection server, along with a coarse location of where the shaking occurred. The server then combines information from many phones to figure out if an earthquake is happening. We’re essentially racing the speed of light (which is roughly the speed at which signals from a phone travel) against the speed of an earthquake. And lucky for us, the speed of light is much faster!
For everywhere else in the world, which doesn’t have such an advanced earthquake-detecting infrastructure, Google’s in-house Android Earthquake Alerts System will be on earthquake watch. The company says that “to start, we’ll use this technology to share a fast, accurate view of the impacted area on Google Search. When you look up “earthquake” or “earthquake near me, you’ll find relevant results for your area, along with helpful, credible resources on what to do after an earthquake.”