There are a significant number of countries that are prone to earthquakes, especially those located along the Ring of Fire across the Pacific. As a result, these countries are looking for efficient and affordable warning systems for earthquakes. Good news is that scientists found out that today's smartphones could be an affordable alternative to state-of-the art earthquake warning systems.
The sensors within the electronic devices called Global Positioning Systems (GPS) can help detect earthquakes and transmit data to nearby places and areas even before the strongest waves could start, researchers determined and noted in their study published in the journal, Science Advances, as reported by Tech Times.
"Most of the world does not receive earthquake warnings, mainly due to the cost of building the necessary scientific monitoring networks," Benjamin Brooks, USGS geophysicist and project lead told Reuters.
Although this could not be as perfect or accurate as the equipment itself, it could be a big help especially to countries who do not have advanced and sophisticated warning systems..
According to Bob Iannucci of Carnegie Mellon University as reported by PhysOrg, "The use of mobile phone fleets as a distributed sensor network-and the statistical insight that many imprecise instruments can contribute to the creation of more precise measurements-has broad applicability including great potential to benefit communities where there isn't an existing network of scientific instruments."
Using crowd-source observations by the researchers, they determined that earthquakes could be detected and analyzed, and data could be sent back to smartphones to act as warnings for upcoming quakes. They analyzed the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan killing thousands of people. They noted that many people could have survived if GPS data were used to send warnings before the seismic waves hit Tokyo and giant waves approached the shore.
This warning system can be used in third world and developing countries that have many smartphone users. Being able to receive a warning of an upcoming earthquake could pave way for preparation and evacuation to safer grounds.
"Thirty years ago it took months to assemble a crude picture of the deformations from an earthquake. This new technology promises to provide a near-instantaneous picture with much greater resolution," said Thomas Heaton, a coauthor of the study and professor of Engineering Seismology at Caltech.
