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Google has turned 2 billion smartphones into a global earthquake warning system — it's just as effective as seismometers
Google's earthquake early-warning system has used phone accelerometers on Android devices to increase quake alerts by tenfold across 98 countries.
To fill this coverage gap, the Google researchers designed the AEA system to use smartphone and smartwatch accelerometers to detect fast-moving P-waves, which typically precede more destructive S-waves during an earthquake. Events like this raise questions about lifesaving software being owned and operated by a tech giant, but Google insists its technology will merely "help supplement official warning systems" instead of replacing them. "AEA demonstrates that globally distributed smartphones can be used to detect earthquakes and issue warnings at scale with an effectiveness comparable to established national systems," the researchers wrote in the study.
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