(Adnkronos) – Saved by smartphones: many people who own Android phones were able to save themselves thanks to alerts launched by their devices, even minutes before Venezuela was hit by the two deadly earthquakes. Many nations have developed systems to alert the population a few seconds before the earthquake begins. Even in countries like Venezuela, which do not have such systems, the Google Android Earthquake Alerts app can send warnings. According to the US Geological Survey, several countries have early earthquake warning systems (sometimes abbreviated as EEW), including the United States, Mexico, Japan, Turkey, Romania, China, Italy, and Taiwan. Venezuela does not have a national early earthquake warning system. Wednesday evening’s consecutive 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude earthquake tremors were among the strongest to hit the country in over a century. However, many people in Venezuela received warnings seconds or even minutes before the earthquake began via Google’s Android earthquake alert system.
The alert system relies on crowdsourced data from individual mobile phone sensors to detect seismic events and send alerts to other phone users in the area. Since its launch in 2020, the system has expanded significantly, from 250 million people receiving alerts that year to over 2.5 billion today, according to Richard Allen, director of the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory. According to Allen’s website, the system alerts about 60 earthquakes per month, notifying an average of 18 million phones. Pericles Sanchez, a 39-year-old Venezuelan writer residing in Caracas – Ndtv News reports – received an earthquake alert on his Android phone a few minutes before the quake reached his home, which allowed him to run outside. Sanchez stated that his family’s house suffered no damage. “We only started feeling it when we were already outside,” Sanchez said.
Diogenes Lopez, 36, a Venezuelan immigrant, said that the earthquake alert app on his phone warned him of the tremors in his homeland, despite now living in Bogotá, Colombia. Having previously lived in Chile, where earthquake alert systems are widely used, he immediately zoomed in on the map and realized the epicenter was near his hometown. “I immediately thought the worst,” Lopez said. “All my family is there.” “In Venezuela, there isn’t the anti-seismic culture found in countries like Chile or Japan. People are not accustomed to these types of events and don’t always know how to react,” he stated, adding that he feared Venezuela’s dilapidated buildings would not withstand long.
