A mock-up of an earthquake early warning (EEW) alert on a cellphone. An EEW system is under development but not yet available to the public. Credit: K. Cantner, AGI, after Jennifer Strauss.
In a perfect world, we'd all be as prepared for an earthquake as Jennifer Strauss. In a perfect world, we'd also have an early-warning system to give us vital seconds to protect ourselves and our family from harm when the shaking starts. In an article in the current issue of Earth magazine , Strauss, the external affairs officer for the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory , describes how an earthquake early-warning system would work in practice, beginning with the first blaring alarm from a cellphone: "Earthquake! Drop, cover and hold on! Strong shaking expected!" "I grab my phone and run to my daughter's room. The MyEEW app - an earthquake early-warning app released by our research team at the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory - is glowing bright orange: shaking intensity 8," she writes. "We have 10 seconds until the shaking begins. Luckily, we have practiced this drill countless times at home. Muscle memory is the only thing keeping me centered while my thoughts race." In this hypothetical scenario, she and her family huddle under a sturdy kitchen table and escape injury as pictures fall, glass breaks and the lights go out.
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