America Has an Earthquake Early-Warning System Now — On Your Phone

Your phone can now warn you before an earthquake arrives.

Yes, before.

“Be-be-boop! Be-be-boop! Earthquake,” rang an app on my iPhone at 11:42 a.m. on Oct. 25. “Drop, cover, hold on, shaking expected.”

A 5.1-magnitude earthquake had just struck about 50 miles away in California’s Silicon Valley. I leaped out of my chair and grabbed a wall. A few seconds later, the ground began to rumble.

This feat of science and personal technology is the best example I’ve seen of how smartphones can help protect tens of millions of us from significant danger. I’ll show you how to get it.

Known as ShakeAlert, America’s earthquake early-warning system was developed by the U.S. Geological Survey and partners to give you typically up to 20 seconds of advance warning before significant shaking arrives, or even a minute in extreme circumstances. If you’re close to the epicenter, you might not get much notice — but it could still be enough to protect yourself.

After nearly two decades of development, ShakeAlert is now operating in California, Oregon and Washington state, where it’s considered 83 percent complete. The USGS is considering expanding the system to Alaska next.

ShakeAlert got one of its largest tests with that October earthquake, when it took less than 10 seconds for the system to send about 2.1 million warnings to Californians like me. Thankfully, there were no reports of major injuries. For me, the little bit of early notice helped me prepare mentally for what was about to come.

The experience also left me wondering: How can a push alert reach my phone faster than shaking does? “That’s a multistage process, and really I find it just fascinating that we can do it all,” says Dave Croker, a member of the ShakeAlert operations team at the USGS.

I met up with Croker at a USGS field station a few miles from California’s notorious San Andreas Fault, where he showed me how the system fits together — starting with your cellphone.

How to get earthquake alerts on your phone

Smartphones have a capability that Croker says is a game changer for earthquake safety: They always know your location. (...)

If you have an Android phone, you’re good to go. Google added ShakeAlert to its operating system in 2020 after the California portion first came online. The warnings pop up automatically on your phone’s lock screen, so long as you have location services and emergency notifications enabled. These alerts are tuned to arrive for earthquakes that are both at least magnitude 4.5 and are also expected to produce noticeable shaking at your location. (If severe shaking is expected, Android will send a special take-action alert.)

If you use an iPhone, there’s a bit more work involved. You’ll need to download and run a free app such as MyShake, made by the University of California at Berkeley, or QuakeAlertUSA, made by Early Warning Labs. Unfortunately, you’ll have to repeatedly give the app permission to know your location at all times. (Apple, which has been heavily touting other iPhone safety features, said it didn’t have anything to share about integrating earthquake alerts into iOS.)

Regardless of what kind of phone you use, ShakeAlert can still find its way to you if an earthquake of magnitude 5 or higher hits. For areas also likely to surpass a high shaking threshold, wireless carriers are equipped to automatically send warnings to every phone using a similar emergency system to Amber Alerts. You just need to have government alerts activated in your phone’s settings.

by Geoffrey A. Fowler, Washington Post |  Read more:

Image: Monica Rodman/The Washington Post
[ed. See also: How to never miss an emergency alert from shootings to wildfires (WP).]