Google to strengthen trust in its earthquake alert system technology

Study reveals how Google turns Android smartphones into earthquake “detector.”

From 2021 to 2024, Google added motion sensors to more than two billion phones that could detect earthquakes. This enabled it to send auto-warnings to people in 98 countries.

Google scientists shared that the technology was able to detect 11,000 quakes and worked on the same level as standard seismometers.

Researchers specializing in earthquake detection but not part of Google’s experiment expressed their fascination with the system's performance. However, they believe that public officials would need more information about the technology behind the system for it to be relied on.

So far, earthquake alert systems have been built on standard seismometers and have been distributed to places like Japan, Mexico, and parts of the US.

In 2020, Google revealed that it would be working on a crowd-sourced system that can detect earthquakes early by tracking the mutual shaking of Android smartphones.

Now, after using the system for three years, the company shared the results, which prove that the technology works. It could potentially save the lives of thousands of people who are killed by earthquakes each year.

Since 2019, the number of people who receive such alerts on their phones has increased. This becomes especially important as some countries don’t have a system that warns them about potential earthquakes.

Google’s system could fix this issue, but Google needs to provide other scientists with more data and algorithms behind its technology, notes Allen Husker, a seismologist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, via Nature.

Considering privacy concerns, Google scientists have issued a paper in Science explaining how the system works, hoping it will answer some questions about the technology.

The Android Earthquake Alerts system relies on Android phones that collect and report motion data. This data is then used to create a map to identify where the earthquake is coming from and how strong it is. The Google team also created an algorithm that analyzes the collected signals, which provides insights into how geology and building construction differ in various regions. It also shows how different phone models record motion.

The main challenge that the system faces is providing people with up-to-date alerts for significant and most damaging earthquakes.

Google describes the system as “supplemental,” meaning that while useful, it is not being developed to replace official earthquake detection systems.