16 ms·
Seconds before a 6.2 earthquake rattled California, phones got a warning
- mongol 5y agoDoes it sound different than other sounds a phone usually makes? I imagine that unless it is carefully designed, the reaction could be "what is that"?
- anticensor 5y agoNo, usual notification sound, cannot be DNDd but can be silenced by setting the default notification tone as silent.
- AnssiH 5y agoAccording to a graphic in the OP article there are different types of mobile alerts depending on the earthquake strength, only the strongest ones triggering an actual Wireless Emergency Alert.
- JetAlone 5y agoPretty good design predilection nonetheless. The one in Japan is very distinctive.
- tkgally 5y agoI don’t know what it sounds like in California, but in Japan, where I live, it’s unmistakable: a very loud buzz followed by a female voice saying firmly—in Japanese, at least on my phone— “It’s an earthquake,” repeated over and over. I’ve experienced it maybe a dozen times over the past ten years. (I’ve felt earthquakes much more frequently here than I did in California, where I grew up.) Two or three times it has woken me up in the middle of the night, and I was able to get up and move away from the dresser that's right next to my futon and could conceivably tip over on me. (I shouldn't be sleeping there, I know.) Several times I was near other people—on a commuter train, in a meeting, walking along a sidewalk—when multiple phones sounded the alarm at the same time. Once or twice, I’ve been on a train that stopped suddenly with an automated announcement coming over the loudspeaker saying “Emergency stop! Earthquake.” Once I felt fairly strong shaking after the train had stopped, so the advance warning might have prevented a derailment. Maybe half the time no perceptible shaking has followed the alert, either because I was too far away from the affected area or because it was a false alarm. One such false alarm occurred on July 29, 2020, and the Meteorological Agency issued an apology [1, in Japanese]. There have also been at least a couple of strong earthquakes where the system didn’t go off when it was supposed to, so it’s not yet perfect. The alerts are startling but also reassuring. It’s much better to have a twenty-second warning than none at all. [1] https://digital.asahi.com/articles/ASN7Z4631N7ZUTIL01Z.html https://digital.asahi.com/articles/ASN7Z4631N7ZUTIL01Z.html
- MisterTea 5y ago> ... I was able to get up and move away from the dresser that's right next to my futon and could conceivably tip over on me. (I shouldn't be sleeping there, I know.) There are restraints you can buy that attach furniture to the walls with a strap. I know its sold to prevent children from attempting to turn their dresser drawers into a set of steps which when climbed tips over on top of them.
- dmurray 5y agoEven my cheap IKEA bookcase came with a strap and a mount point for it. I think it would withstand a moderate earthquake, but not necessarily a child applying that level of leverage.
- lostlogin 5y agoIt’s worth doing. A baby was killed by a toppling tv here in New Zealand during the Christchurch earthquake. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/christchurch-earthquake-tv-crushes-sleeping-baby/2QJ42C7VXMA5ENHFSVXCDZCYHE/ https://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/christchurc...
- zikduruqe 5y agohttps://www.charlieshouse.org https://www.charlieshouse.org And it saves lives too.
- tjpnz 5y agoA couple of months ago I was walking through a park late at night thinking I was alone. So it was a rather surreal experience to see phones light up everywhere around me with that woman's voice speaking in almost perfect unison. In this particular case there was a 2-3 second warning. Was one of the more violent ones Tokyo has had recently and I was rather glad to not have been inside.
- iszomer 5y agoHere's a good visual representation of their early warning system back in 2011.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-FMpNBfna8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-FMpNBfna8
- nend 5y agoEver receive a flash flood warning, severe weather alert (lightning, tornado), or amber alert on your phone? It'd be the same notification. I'm sure there's others too, those are just the ones I've received before.
- bombcar 5y agoI’m so glad apple separated amber alerts from the emergency broadcasts. Used to get two or three a week which made it completely useless.
- xeromal 5y agoOn Android, I've unsubscribed from everything except presidential alerts. I had my last straw when I started getting alerts for wear a mask and other ridiculous crap.
- MerelyMortal 5y agoIt would be really nice on Android if I could get the alerts without the obnoxious noise. Since the noise and the alert are tied together, and I absolutely detest the noise, I have the alert turned off. It's silly that you can turn off the ring for a phone call and still get the notification, but can't turn off the alert noise without also turning off the alert notification.
- xeromal 5y agoYeah, it's supposed to be grating because it's a rare even but sending daily covid advice is honestly a waste of a good system.
- lostlogin 5y agoI’ve been a supporter of the government campaigning and messaging here in New Zealand. However if this was happening I’d be most unhappy. It’s close to the Orwell ‘2 minute hate’. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Minutes_Hate https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Minutes_Hate
- dtech 5y agoAndroid's Emergency Broadcast is very loud and distinctive, my country tests periodically. I'm not sure if seconds before impact would be early enough for me to take action though.
- 323 5y agoEarthquakes tend to have a bit of a ramp up period (P wave vs S wave), I was in an earthquake once and could figure out initially what was going on, because I was experiencing the first low intensity waves. An alert would avoid this initial confusion.
- themodelplumber 5y agoFWIW this recent quake triggered a pleasant bell-chime sound on my Android phone. I hadn't heard that particular sound before. I appreciate that the warning gave me enough time to radio my kids in the house and let them know to expect something. We never felt the quake but it was good practice anyway.
- teeray 5y agoOn iOS, these alerts mimic SAME tones[0]. It sounds like a brighter version of the combined attention tone with a bit of modulation. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specific_Area_Message_Encoding https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specific_Area_Message_Encoding
- Havoc 5y agoAnother poster above describes the sound as obnoxious so presumably not the normal ones
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- robertlagrant 5y agoThe cause of the earthquake has been identified as all the phones simultaneously vibrating from a stress test of the alerting system.
- jorgeudajer 5y ago
- klenwell 5y agoI received my first and, as yet, only earthquake warning on my smart phone this past September for a 4.3 earthquake here in Southern California. It was an interesting fleeting experience. I was sitting on the couch, phone in hand, when it emitted an unusual fairly obnoxious noise. I glanced at the screen, saw the words earthquake and 4 something, and understood what was being conveyed sort of inchoately without making it explicit sense of it. My wife was sitting next to me reading so I turned to her and tried to show it to her but she remained absorbed in her reading. Then the room jolted, rocked a little, and settled. The nice thing about the alert is I remained relaxed the whole time. Because the alert indicated the magnitude, I wasn't too worried about damage or personal injury. Now if it had warned of a larger earthquake, like a 5 or 6, I imagine I would have been more panicked. Still, the warning would have been even more valuable in that case. It was one of the more acute "Now this feels like living in the future" moments I've had recently.
- dfxm12 5y agoI've got no idea at what magnitude I should start worrying. I would assume, and hope, that if my phone (which is otherwise on silent) is blaring, it must be a big deal. Maybe for some people a 4.3 is a big deal, but not for all...
- leeoniya 5y ago> I've got no idea at what magnitude I should start worrying ask your building inspector
- BurningFrog 5y agoYou start worrying at 5.0.
- rectang 5y agoIt depends how close you are to the epicenter, of course. Your figure seems about right to me: I think a 5.0 near an epicenter would be pretty violent. But I've never been near an epicenter — only on the outskirts.
- mwattsun 5y agoI lived through the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake near the epicenter in Aptos California. My house suffered extensive damage. I think 3 people total were killed in Santa Cruz. One was standing next to a brick building and the other was next to a horse that bolted. A 10 second warning probably would have saved their lives, if they were prepared to take action when they got it. On the other hand, I don't think a 10 second warning would have done me any good. It's a great technology though.
- xattt 5y agoIt’s an interesting test of people’s situational awareness: what am I near right now that has the potential to kill me in an earthquake?
- not2b 5y agoThe largest number of deaths (42) came from the collapse of a double decker freeway structure in Oakland. It would have been much worse if it weren't for the baseball championship game that got many people watching the game instead of driving home. I was in grad school at UC Berkeley and living in San Francisco at the time. Fortunately I left early that day, since BART was stopped and the Bay Bridge was impassible after the earthquake.
- ec109685 5y agoOr more people would have ran out of the house and gotten hit by falling debris as they fled their house. It’s hard to act rationally in that situation. I went through all the duck and cover drills through school, and when the house started shaking, I bolted out of there during that earthquake.
- clsec 5y agoyeah, I don't think a 10 second warning would have done anything other than get me outside. As it was, I dropped the bag of garbage I was just about to take out, saw the corner of the living room in my second story wood frame apartment in Mountain View move 2 feet in each direction, and tried to get outside. That was unsuccessful because everything in my hallway closet flew out and blocked the front door. So I headed to my bedroom and dove into the closet filled with dirty clothes. I remained there safely until it was over. Which was probably safer than going outside with exploding transformers and sketchy power lines. Someone else commented on wanting to feel a smaller quake. As someone born and raised in CA I used to love feeling earthquakes. I thought they were fun! That was until Loma Prieta, where I honestly thought I was going to die.
- ralph84 5y agoIn California is there a way to configure an iPhone so you get earthquake alerts but not covid alerts?
- djrogers 5y agoI'm not sure where you're getting your COVID alerts from - I live in California and have never seen one. Maybe you installed an app?
- ralph84 5y agoSanta Clara county. Every time there was a new health order or vaccine availability change they sent an alert. Not from an app. On iPhone the options are amber alerts, emergency alerts, and public safety alerts. The question is what combo of those if any will give you real emergencies and skip the custody disputes and covid noise.
- Miiko 5y agoSan Mateo county. Have all alerts enabled in my iPhone and never got any covid-related or custody dispute alerts. You probably either have some app installed or enrolled in some service.
- ralph84 5y agoYour county health officer and my county health officer have had quite different takes on covid.
- tedunangst 5y agohttps://www.mercurynews.com/2021/11/16/san-jose-officials-are-unapologetic-about-buzzing-your-phone-to-deliver-covid-19-vaccine-information/ https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/11/16/san-jose-officials-ar...
- Rebelgecko 5y agoiOS probably lets you uninstall the California contact tracing app, that should stop the alerts
- sva_ 5y agoI'm currently on my first trip to the US, and was in Napa Valley at the time of that earthquake. I (sadly) didn't feel anything. It probably sounds weird, but I wish to experience a (light) earthquake sometime. The idea of the ground itself shaking seems absolutely alien to me.
- boringg 5y agoSub 4.2 earthquakes feel like a truck rumbling by your house (if you have an old house/apartment). I used to live on a busy street in SF and whenever there was an earthquake it was always ... was that a large truck or an earthquake. Only when it keep rattling did it really differentiate.
- minitoar 5y agoIt’s more like everything is shaking. The fact that the source is the ground is not obvious in the moment.
- yesco 5y agoI experienced my first and only earthquake (5.8 magnitude) while visiting the holocaust museum in Washington DC. It was very out of the ordinary for the region and so as strange as it sounds, myself, my family and some other people present all thought the shaking was a part of the exhibit and simply carried on.... only for a security guard to come running in several minutes later to kick us out of the building. I think earthquakes can by easy to miss sometimes for those unused to them because they feel so mundane. Like everyone's experienced a certain degree of shaking before, heck the turbulence in a plane isn't much different. This obviously changes at higher magnitudes but really changed my perspective.
- quartesixte 5y agoThere is nothing quite like it. The whole earth moves. It’s like being on a boat but it’s solid ground.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- digitallyfree 5y agoWhile mobile alerts are great, I wish there was a way to (voluntarily) get those official warnings via other means like (landline) phone call, SMS, or email - in cases where you may not have your phone on you or if there is no service.
- therealdrag0 5y agoHave you checked your local government services? Some have emergency alerts via sms. Not sure if earthquake maybe be included.
- akyoan 5y agoI'm not sure if SMS and email are ever considered urgent enough for this purpose. The alert is sent out seconds before, it's either a loud and unusual sound or you might get to read/answer after it actually hits. i.e. it'd be useless.
- nostrademons 5y agoSLAs for SMS are also about 98%. 1 in 50 messages isn't going to get to its intended recipient in any reasonable timeframe, which is pretty bad for a time-sensitive public safety feature.
- dragonwriter 5y ago> I wish there was a way to (voluntarily) get those official warnings via other means Mobile alerts are the most recent addition in the US; they are also carried by radio and TV broadcast, Cable TV, and a variety of other mechanisms. But not POTS,SMS, or email.
- seidoger 5y agoI don't know if that's everywhere in Japan but in 2014 I was in Tokyo having lunch outside when suddenly this fast alert (ie. not a slow siren) started blaring, 5 seconds later the ground was shaking.
- bamboozled 5y ago
- joelbondurant0 5y ago
- mensetmanusman 5y agoThey should add an extra alert for people near the coast based on your gps altitude: “If this were a magnitude 8.5, you would have had 15 minutes before the tsunami reached your altitude.”
- not2b 5y agoThere are already good tsunami warning systems in place in many vulnerable areas.
- varajelle 5y agoWhat was the exact message sent?
- SeanA208 5y agoI'm surprised this xkcd hasn't been shared here yet. Highly relevant: https://xkcd.com/723/ https://xkcd.com/723/
- boznz 5y agoI would think with a million cellphones with sensitive accelorometers you could get the data much quicker and much more accurate (a million+ data points gives you a lot of options)
- axiosgunnar 5y agoSounds like a privacy nightmare
- bsmith0 5y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Differential_privacy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Differential_privacy might help
- caleb-allen 5y agoThat's exactly what this app from UC Berkeley does https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=edu.berkeley.bsl.myshake https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=edu.berkeley.b...
- mattlondon 5y agoFrom TFA: "up to 10 seconds warning" Probably a usable amount of time I guess - I expect it probably takes 2 or 3 seconds to fully comprehend, then that leaves 5 seconds or so to take cover. From someone living in UK where earthquakes are rare and tiny, what sort of cover can you take in less than 10 seconds? Go jump in a steel bath tub or something? Stand in a doorway? (Is that a thing? Does it depend on wood Vs brick Vs concrete?)
- tempnow987 5y agoYour elevator stops at next floor and doors open. You grab your child practicing their walking skills on a dangerous edge. I just get up and stand in a doorway away from the unsecured bookshelves.
- jconnop 5y agoThe advice we get in New Zealand is to get underneath something strong like a table. Sitting where I am now I could probably make it under a table in under 5 seconds. The bigger effect maybe is that prepares you mentally for the impact, so you're already planning your next steps and aren't in quite as much surpise/panic as if you had no warning. When things are collapsing, seconds can be the difference between life and death. Even if a system like this only saves a few extra percent of lives lost in a major earthquake, it sounds worth it to me.
- yosito 5y ago> The advice we get in New Zealand is to get underneath something strong like a table Depending on how earthquake-proof a building is, this could be bad advice. If you're in an earthquake-proof building, a table will protect you from falling objects. If the building you're in collapses, you'll want to be next to something that's not very compressible, like a bed or a couch. The collapse will leave open triangles next to objects like this, which are the best place to survive a collapse.
- Mandatum 5y agoNew Zealand doesn't really have brick or concrete buildings (except high-rises). Lots of very old weatherboard. And you're right, the advice these days isn't "get under" something, it's "get next to something big or under the doorway".
- Lammy 5y ago> “We got some reports from folks that they got up to 10 seconds’ warning before they felt shaking. That’s pretty darn good,” said Robert de Groot, a ShakeAlert coordinator with the USGS. Fun fact: that's three times longer than it takes to safely trip a nuclear reactor: "A reactor trip causes all the control rods to insert into the reactor core, and shut down the plant in a very short time (about three seconds)." https://public-blog.nrc-gateway.gov/2012/12/28/what-is-a-reactor-trip-and-how-does-it-protect-the-plant/ https://public-blog.nrc-gateway.gov/2012/12/28/what-is-a-rea... I mention this because this quake's epicenter is pretty close to the Humboldt Bay NGS, and there's always a lot of uninformed hand-wringing about atomic energy near fault lines (even though this particular station has been offline since 1988) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humboldt_Bay_Nuclear_Power_Plant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humboldt_Bay_Nuclear_Power_Pla...
- outworlder 5y agoIt's also worth noting that, in the case of the Fukushima accident, all nuclear reactors shutdown correctly when the earthquake was detected, before it reached the plants. All of them, including the affected plant, shutdown as designed. Then the tsunami came and created a bunch of issues (lots of vital equipment at ground level, generator trucks came and were incompatible, yada yada yada). Japan has a great early warning system for both earthquakes and tsunamis that has been in operation for quite a while now(since 2007?) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAxxZkpV0HI&t=62s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAxxZkpV0HI&t=62s
- mpyne 5y agoI'm a nuke proponent but it's very worth pointing out that a nuclear reactor that has been recently shutdown will need days of cooling to be available in order to safely avoid damage to the reactor and potential meltdown, pressure spikes, etc. New-ish designs can do the cooling completely passively but not all active nuclear reactors are so equipped (Fukushima's Daiichi's ancient BWR design needed active cooling, which failed in the tsunami, while the slightly newer BWR design at Fukushima Daini survived the tsunami damage without further core damage).
- Isthatablackgsd 5y ago
- kornhole 5y agoDoes anybody know of the FOSS app for this that would work on my hardened degoogled phone? The alerts would need to delivered via web socket or Gotify since I have no Google Play Services.
- p0cc 5y agoI live in Humboldt County, so I got one of these notifications. Mine arrived 5 seconds after the earthquake, and several of the people on my discord server got it 2-5s after the earthquake. One person got it a couple seconds before. Relevant XKCD: https://xkcd.com/723/ https://xkcd.com/723/
- walrus01 5y agoCtrl-f "shinkansen" Nothing yet? For quite some time, Japan has had an automated system which will send signals to bullet trains to begin braking, immediately after the detection of an earthquake in a nearby region. The wireless telecom network traffic speed and latency can outpace the earthquake wave propagation through the ground. It is my understanding that this worked successfully in the major quake in 2011, and that there were no derailments of high-speed trains. https://www.railway-technology.com/features/feature122751/ https://www.railway-technology.com/features/feature122751/ https://www.ejrcf.or.jp/jrtr/jrtr43_44/f64_ara.html https://www.ejrcf.or.jp/jrtr/jrtr43_44/f64_ara.html
- mikewarot 5y agoIf that happened here in Indiana, I'd totally ignore it because of all the "Extreme Alert" "Silver Alert" messages that show up at all hours on my phone. Some day, the New Madrid fault is going to snap, and it might even take down my house... 25 miles from Chicago.
- davidjytang 5y agoBack in 2016, Taiwan rolled out a system like this but also include warnings on mudslide, emergency road closure, thunderstorm, air raid drill, nuclear disaster, dam release. Since then, however, I have only received alerts on earthquakes and air raid drills.
- vram22 5y agoI have experienced a few earthquakes, big and small. In one of the smaller but not trivial ones, at night, I was sleeping, woke up due to the vibrations, looked out of the window, and saw the ground shaking. Went out of my house to check, and yes, it was.