With sensors up and down the West Coast, the aim is to detect earthquakes within five seconds or less and spread the warning before the shaking happens.
“We’re essentially turning on the system that covers the West Coast and starting some pilot projects that actually use the information to take some beneficial actions,” said John Vidale, director of the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network and a Washington State Seismologist. “We’ve been building the system for a couple of years—the software and hardware—and trying to make connections with people who could use it. We’ve had test users out there watching the system operate.”
About 100 test users have experience with the system so far, including large companies that have an emergency manager, and state and federal agencies. “Some watch it carefully and some just tried the software once and wait for it to go further,” Vidale said.
“Further” means the ability to notify users in five seconds or less without a hitch. This system will be tested for another year or two and then may be ready for public use. “Every month we find an issue we need to clear up, but finally we’re at the level where we think we’re not going to make any big mistakes,” Vidale said. “It’s hard to know the different ways we need to make sure this thing works because serious warnings only go out every few decades.”
Completing the system to the point to where it’s available for the public will cost $38.3 million in capital investment, and $16.1 million each year to operate and maintain it, according to the USGS.
Another issue is getting the alerts on cellphones where people receive a lot of their information. Right now, it would take minutes or hours to reach residents via cellphone, and by that time a good deal of the earthquake damage will have been done.
Vidale said his network and partners are working with the telecommunications industry to try to solve the problem. “We need to basically hardwire it into the system and there’s limited bandwidth.”
He said Japan has already solved that problem, sending these alerts “basically at the speed of light.”
Here, the public may have to wait five to eight years for the new generation of smartphone to have the app, although other means of distributing the warnings, such as public alarms, television and others, will be available sooner.
