Earthquake Alert: Google’s early warning system seriously failed during the devastating earthquake in Turkas in 2023. Google itself has admitted that his Android Earthquake Alerts (AEA) technology could not give necessary warnings to about 1 crore people in the affected areas on time.
What happened that day?
Google’s system was active when the first major 7.8 magnitude earthquake occurred in the Turki at 4:17 am on 6 February 2023. Nevertheless, only 469 people got high level alerts like “take action”, while millions of people living in this area were deprived of this warning. According to Google, about 5 lakh people were sent to a ‘Be Aware’ alert with light shaking, which does not awaken the phone even in ‘Do Not Disturb’ mode.
This is the same system that Google propagated in about 100 countries of the world like “Global Safety Net”, especially in places where no national warning system is present.
How does Google’s Earthquake Alert System works?
This system of Google recognizes earthquake tremors with the help of sensors in Android mobile phones. Since the waves of the earthquake spread slowly to the ground, an advance notification of a few seconds can be sent.
The warning called ‘Take Action’ is the most serious, it locks the screen by playing a sharp alarm on the user’s phone and also overrodes the ‘Do not disturb’ mode. At the same time, another warning, ‘be aware’, only reports light shaking and does not awaken the phone.
But at the time of the first warning in the Turk, the system managed the intensity of the earthquake 4.5 to 4.9 MMS while it was actually 7.8 intense. This is the reason that the necessary “take action” alert could not reach most people.
Second big mistake and answer to google
Google’s system also underestimated the second major earthquake that occurred on the same day. This time, take action alert to 8,158 people and be aware alerts were sent to about four million users. The researchers of Google later re -simulated the situation of the same earthquake and found that if algorithm was already updated, 1 crore people could get “take action” and 6.7 crores “Be Aware” alert. Google told BBC, “Algorithm boundaries are revealed in every major earthquake and we are making the system better by learning something every time.”
Scientists raised questions
The most worrying thing in this case is that it took 2 years for Google to make this complete information public. Elizabeth Reddy, Assistant Professor of Colorado School of Mines, said, “Thousands of people were killed and it took us so much time to know that the system did not work properly. It is disappointing.”
Can only go on Google rely?
Google says that their system is not an alternative to the national warning system, but complement. But scientists are worried that some countries should not be completely dependent on it. Till now the AEA system is being used in 98 countries.
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