Google’s Android Earthquake Alerts System works anywhere in the world and turns every Android device into a mini seismometer.
Google announced a slew of updates to Android phones on Tuesday, including the ability to detect earthquakes. The Android Earthquake Alerts System works anywhere in the world and turns every Android device into a mini seismometer. Google says it is the largest earthquake detection network in the world. “All smartphones come with tiny accelerometers that can sense signals that indicate an earthquake might be happening. If the phone detects something that it thinks may be an earthquake, it sends a signal to our earthquake detection server, along with a coarse location of where the shaking occurred,” wrote Marc Stogaitis, the Principal Software Engineer at Google, in a blog post.
