The California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (CalOES) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) worked with Android parent Google to include the “MyShake” technology in an upcoming update of the Android operating system.
The app “marries a smartphone application with traditional alert and warning delivery methods such as Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA),” the governor’s office said Tuesday in a news release. “The system uses ground motion sensors from across the state to detect earthquakes before humans can feel them and notifies you in real time.”
The app is an expansion of the state’s Early Earthquake Warning System, rolled out in October, which incorporates “MyShake” app with the emergency alerts. It’s the first such application in the U.S., though Oregon and Washington are also working on a similar application.
For iPhone users, the app is available for download via the App Store for iPhone. It’s available in English and Spanish.
“MyShake” is more than just an app to receive early seismic warnings of quakes measured at 4.5 magnitude or larger: “In addition to providing earthquake alerts, maps and safety tips, your phone helps to detect earthquakes,” says an explainer on the Apple apps website. The system uses the same data as the Earthquake Early Warning System.
“It’s not every day that Silicon Valley looks to state government for state-of-the-art innovation, but that’s exactly what is happening today,” Newsom said in the news release. “This announcement means that California’s world-class Earthquake Early Warning System will be a standard function on every Android phone – giving millions precious seconds to drop, cover and hold on when the big one hits.”
The “MyShake” app has been downloaded more than a million times since being launched; the new Google technology will automatically be installed in millions of Android phones used in California, without the need to download a separate app. The app was built by the UC Berkeley Seismological Lab. The date for the Android update has not been announced.
Warnings delivered through the system are based on a computerized program called ShakeAlert, operated by the CalOES and USGS, which analyzes data from seismic networks in California, calculates preliminary magnitudes, and then estimates which areas will feel shaking.
The UC Berkeley site includes a brief explanation of how “MyShake” works, along with a video tutorial:
- Collect: When your phone is stationary, “MyShake” is ready to collect data from its motion sensors.
- Detect: “MyShake” uses a neural network to decide which motion is produced by earthquakes and which isn’t.
- Record: When “MyShake” detects an earthquake, its network of phones records the shaking to collect valuable data.
Earthquake-prone countries like Mexico and Japan have long had earthquake early-warning systems, with alerts typically delivered through cellphones or public address systems. However, California is the first state in the nation to offer earthquake early warning.
To learn more about earthquake preparedness and download the earthquake early warning application, visit: www.earthquake.ca.gov.
