A study shows that the earthquake detection systems present on certain smartphones are today more effective in saving lives than traditional installations.
With seismographers spread over the entire surface of the globe, research and analysis centers and decades of study on subjects, the means to detect earthquakes are numerous and efficient. Despite everything, they remain dangerous phenomena which, sometimes, are not predicted in time and can cause significant disasters.
Since 2020, GoogleGoogle deploys mini-seismometers by default directly on its smartphones AndroidAndroid. A study published in the journal Science This July 17 returns to this device … and it seems that it is effective, and even more than we thought!
Less precise, but more effective
The principle is absolutely not connected to the various prevention devices against earthquakes. Instead, the seismometers depend on the phones accelerometer. This is the component that allows the smartphone to detect its position, for example what makes it pass in landscape mode when you turn your screen. It turns out that this same device can also detect tremors, and therefore send an alert to the user for a few seconds before the earthquakeearthquake does not happen. With each time a different degree of alert depending on the estimated force of the earthquake.
The authors write in the study: ” Even if these devices are not as precise as traditional seismic stations, they are still able to detect tremors during important earthquakes ». This would be particularly useful, especially in countries where infrastructure to predict these disasters do not exist, but where Android smartphones are still largely deployed.
Between 2021 and 2024, Google systems detected an average of 312 earthquakes per month, with magnitudesmagnitudes Between 1.9 to 7.8, through 98 different countries. In all, 18 million alerts were sent each month, and with a significant success rate. Users’ responses show that they are mostly satisfied with the service and that the alerts were indeed useful.
Some failures, for a lot of success
It is not done without difficulty. Last February, the American firm apologized after a series of false alerts in Brazil, and had temporarily disabled the service. Ensuring that these detectors were not intended to replace existing systems and were rather complementary. These few failures had then served to improve the service thanks to the data collected.
Alert activation for an earthquake on your phone. © Tech and Tutorial Tips
Despite everything, according to the authors, these tests ” have shown that massively distributed smartphones can be used to detect large -scale earthquakes, with efficiency comparable to national systems ». The most important thing is not the accuracy of the alert here, but more the ability to update a maximum of people in a minimum of time. In these moments, even a few seconds can be precious to take shelter.
In addition, the multiple alerts received by users, as well as the responses they sometimes provide, help to feed a large databasedatabase To further improve the detection and prevention of future events.
