Earthquake early warning system is one of the most important
infrastructures in countries such as Japan, where earthquakes fairly common
happen. Nevertheless, the cost required to build such system is generally quite
large.
But there is good news for areas which haven't had
earthquake early warning system. NASA, through their Jet Propulsion Laboratory
division, plans to build a similar system by utilizing data collected from
smartphones or tablets of locals.
Their studies with a team of researchers from the US
Geological Survey found that the GPS receiver that's embedded in mobile devices
can detect the occurrence of ground movements caused by earthquakes.
The system will utilize crowdsourcing method, where data
from mobile devices of residents who participate will be analyzed in relation
to the potential occurrence of earthquakes. Simply put, the data is taken from
the community, and for the community.
To detect potential earthquakes in a region, the system requires
only a few percent of population to participate in this program. Based on the
calculation and simulation they did, at least 5,000 people who participate in a
metropolitan region is sufficient to detect potential earthquakes quickly and
accurately, which will then be given a warning before the earthquakes occur.
So far, this new system can detect the earthquakes with 7 or
more Richter scale. To detect an earthquake with smaller scale is still needed conventional
earthquake early warning system with complete infrastructures.
The earthquake early warning system based on crowdsourcing has great potential, especially in the areas where the use of mobile devices is
quite high. The hope is that the financial constraint doesn't become a reason
for the absence of earthquake early warning system in their area.
The US government has been willing to fund the construction
of this project for the first time. Working closely with the Chilean Centro
Sismologico Nacional, they will test an earthquake early warning system that utilizes
sensors of mobile devices and professional class sensors in coastal areas of
Chile.