Earthquakes are one of the most violent natural disasters. According to Wikipedia, in a list of top 10 natural disasters with highest death toll, 5 of them are earthquakes. Even in 21st century, dealing with an earthquake is still one of the toughest job. Since most of the time it hits without any warning and by the time the warning reaches, disaster would have already taken its place.
To combat such situations, the tech giant Google has been working on its own earthquake alert system as well as a detection system. Currently only android devices will be receiving such alerts and after it reached the android users of New Zealand and Balkan's country, Greece at the beginning of 2021, seven more countries recently received their earthquake updates. These 7 countries include Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Philippines and Kyrgyz Republic. Google aims to make it available to almost every country by next year.
The way this alert system works is just like how Google collects data for its Google Maps. It works by gaining data based on movement in a crowded area. According to Google, each android device will work like an earthquake detector machine, seismometer. Because of all the touch sensors that comes with the device. After gaining data from a wide number of users of the same area and based on the information from one area, it will send out alert to the next possible area that could be affected. This is how the detection and sending an alert system will work.
So far 9 countries have already received their earthquake service from Google. Out of these 9 countries, New Zealand and Greece are the only two to receive the crowd source system, however Google is working to make sure that every country receives this by 2022. For United States, it is still waiting to receive the crowd source system as well, as currently the earthquake alerts are based on the United States Geological Survey’s shake alert data.
Read next: Google Finally Launches Its End-to-End Encryption on Android Messages App After Months of Beta Testing
To combat such situations, the tech giant Google has been working on its own earthquake alert system as well as a detection system. Currently only android devices will be receiving such alerts and after it reached the android users of New Zealand and Balkan's country, Greece at the beginning of 2021, seven more countries recently received their earthquake updates. These 7 countries include Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Philippines and Kyrgyz Republic. Google aims to make it available to almost every country by next year.
The way this alert system works is just like how Google collects data for its Google Maps. It works by gaining data based on movement in a crowded area. According to Google, each android device will work like an earthquake detector machine, seismometer. Because of all the touch sensors that comes with the device. After gaining data from a wide number of users of the same area and based on the information from one area, it will send out alert to the next possible area that could be affected. This is how the detection and sending an alert system will work.
So far 9 countries have already received their earthquake service from Google. Out of these 9 countries, New Zealand and Greece are the only two to receive the crowd source system, however Google is working to make sure that every country receives this by 2022. For United States, it is still waiting to receive the crowd source system as well, as currently the earthquake alerts are based on the United States Geological Survey’s shake alert data.
Read next: Google Finally Launches Its End-to-End Encryption on Android Messages App After Months of Beta Testing
