"Earthquake. Earthquake. Shaking to begin in ...15 seconds". The particular message preceded by a siren is going to warn people in a group of trial public and private institutions of an imminent earthquake. The specialized software, developed by the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network, based in University of Washington, will be installed in their computers and is the first earthquake early warning system tested outside the research community in the region.
People from Boeing, Microsoft, Sound Transit, Providence Hospital and other hospitals, transportation agencies, utilities and emergency planners have already received a prototype of the software. Upon installation in their computers, the software will open a window showing earthquake epicenter, magnitude and time before shaking occurs. The trial group will soon meet on the UW campus with the research team for an introductory workshop, as well as to confer about the system's potential use in emergency planning and response in the coastal area of Northern California up to southern British Columbia.
The warning system will issue an automated alert within four seconds after P waves are initially detected by a network of 240 seismometers installed throughout Washington and Oregon. The particular alert could be translated to a few seconds or even more than a minute before the more destructive S waves reach the user. This reaction time is a function of the user's distance from the epicenter, geography and earthquake size.
Researchers believe this will be a unique opportunity to spot the system's weaknesses and plan on resolving them in the next year, while trial institutions begin to think about integrating such alerts into their emergency planning.
UW professor of Earth and space sciences and director of the seismic network, John Vidale, with regards to the software's future stated: "Eventually, we want to provide simple, fast and uniform coverage to protect the citizens and infrastructure". The test group is "an exciting first step in that direction."
Source: University of Washington
A brand-new application is able to alert people in time when earthquakes strike in California. Sh...
The recent magnitude 6.0 earthquake that jolted Napa Valley has caused extensive damage to wineries...
According to a new study, smaller earthquakes have caused the strongest shaking incidents in the vi...
Earthquake prediction has been a challenge for scientists for decades until the development of early...
Researchers have tried for decades to determine whether there is a reliable precursor that can act...
Earthquake prediction and warning is an evolving technology, which is going to significantly contrib...
A University of Washington research project simulates 50 ways a magnitude 9.0 earthquake on the Casc...
A M 7.4 earthquake struck off the coast of New Zealand raising concerns about a potential tsunami....