California Launches Earthquake Early Warning System

What is particularly good here is that the means to test this will be obvious.   I get USGS reports on earthquakes via an App, can filter them to mag 4.5 and higher, minutes after they occur.  So comparison to predictions should be straightforward.  Look forward to ongoing analysis.

California Launches Earthquake Early Warning System
Calls it the best in the world    in Reuters  By Dan Whitcomb 

California has launched the first statewide earthquake warning system in the U.S., aimed at detecting seismic waves and notifying residents via a mobile phone app up to 20 seconds before tremors hit. The California Earthquake Early Warning System taps hundreds of sensors to detect P-waves, which travel through the interior of the Earth, and arrive prior to surface waves and at a higher frequency during a temblor. University of California, Berkeley seismologists and engineers designed the MyShake phone app, which will initially warn users of local quakes with a magnitude of 4.5 or higher. Alerts are based on the ShakeAlert computer program operated by the U.S. Geological Survey, which analyzes data from seismic networks across the state, estimates the preliminary magnitudes of tremors, and calculates which areas will feel them.  ... "

Here is more about the early warning mobile App. I have it installed.

Crowdsourcing Earthquake Sensor Data

Prediction research via sensor data.   An update on the use of captured data.

Berkeley News

Quake-detection app captured nearly 400 temblors worldwide
By Robert Sanders, Media relations 

The Android app harnesses a smartphone’s motion detectors to measure earthquake ground motion, then sends that data back to the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory for analysis. The eventual goal is to send early-warning alerts to users a bit farther from ground zero, giving them seconds to a minute of warning that the ground will start shaking. That’s enough time to take cover or switch off equipment that might be damaged in a quake.

To date, nearly 220,000 people have downloaded the app, and at any one time, between 8,000 and 10,000 phones are active — turned on, lying on a horizontal surface and connected to a wi-fi network — and thus primed to respond.

An updated version of the MyShake app will be available for download today (Dec. 14) from the Google Play Store, providing an option for push notifications of recent quakes within a distance determined by the user, and the option of turning the app off until the phone is plugged in, which could extend the life of a single charge in older phones. .... "