Shaking a smartphone can help you pinpoint your parked car, discover a good diner and then pay for your meal. Now, scientists have shown that a jiggling, GPS-equipped phone could someday deliver an early warning of earthquakes.
Earthquake early warning systems depend on the time delay between two sets of seismic waves. The first set, called P waves, often delivers a sharp jolt. The most damaging shaking comes from slower surface waves, called S waves. For cities built far from powerful faults, distant seismic instruments stationed on the hazardous faults can detect the P waves and send an alert before the S waves arrive. The warning may be only a few seconds to a minute, but that's enough time to stop trains and surgeries and for people to find cover.
"A few seconds can be enormously helpful," said lead study author Sarah Minson, a geophysicist at the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, California.
Shaking a smartphone can help you pinpoint your parked car, discover a good diner and then pay for your meal. Now, scientists have shown that a jiggling, GPS-equipped phone could someday deliver an early warning of earthquakes.Earthquake early warning systems depend on the time delay between two sets of seismic waves. The first set, called P waves, often delivers a sharp jolt. The most damaging shaking comes from slower surface waves, called S waves. For cities built far from powerful faults, distant seismic instruments stationed on the hazardous faults can detect the P waves and send an alert before the S waves arrive. The warning may be only a few seconds to a minute, but that's enough time to stop trains and surgeries and for people to find cover."A few seconds can be enormously helpful," said lead study author Sarah Minson, a geophysicist at the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, California.
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