We live in a world that boasts versatility as one of its greatest strengths. The said dynamic allows us to have some unique experiences over the course of our lives. This results directly in a broadened individual perspective, and once we get there, our journey to become better gets a whole lot easier. You see, with an inclusive view of the world, we are able to place a bigger knowledge pool at our disposal, thus setting ourselves up for a more informed future. It also means that, following every experience, our growth prospects tend to grow in core quality. The benefits of it are expectantly groundbreaking, but none of them have, so far, managed to match up with a certain creation called technology. Technology would go on to chalk up an entirely new growth trajectory for us. However, there is a very good chance that technological by-products might take up an even more significant role going forward, and the ShakeAlert app has just given us the perfect glimpse of it.
ShakeAlert, an app specifically designed to give people few preparatory seconds before an earthquake, carried out its first successful detection on Monday when an earthquake reportedly hit northwest California region. The 6.2 magnitude earthquake was the biggest one since ShakeAlert got a state-wide rollout in 2019. Fortunately, there were no fatalities, and the world was able to witness the potential of such an app, as people living in a small town named Petrolia, the latest earthquake’s epicentre, evidently got a notification from ShakeAlert 10 seconds prior to when the initial tremors were felt.
“We are really going to learn the most from real earthquakes,” said Robert de Groot, a ShakeAlert coordinator with USGS. “It’s giving us the chance to use the system and learn how to do a better job of alerting people.”
ShakeAlert basically functions by extracting relevant data from United States Geological Survey’s (USGS) sensor network. While the alerts are mostly sent through the ShakeAlert app, you can also receive them through emergency alerts system on your phone. Apart from it, these earthquake notifications, as a part of a partnership between Google, USGS, and California Office of Emergency Services, receive a special dispatch to Android devices.
ShakeAlert was first introduced in Los Angeles during 2018. The system was there when an earthquake had occurred 150 miles off the city, but surprisingly; people living in the area got no alert whatsoever because the observed tremors failed to cross the app’s threshold. After recurring complaints, ShakeAlert developers finally lowered the tremor threshold.