Imagine you get an alert seconds before an earthquake rattles your city. What would you do with that time? For many on the U.S. West Coast, this scenario is becoming real thanks to MyShake, a free app developed by the UC Berkeley Seismology Lab. MyShake delivers earthquake early warnings in California, Oregon, and Washington using data from the USGS ShakeAlert system.
How could an earthquake app like MyShake help?
These precious moments before shaking starts can be vital. Users might have time to drop, cover, and hold on, pause work in a hazardous area, or warn others nearby, potentially preventing injuries and saving lives. That sense of urgency is not lost on Roma Levy, who left a five-star review after a recent quake: “I really appreciate the early warning it provides … I feel that as an emergency alert, the app should override Do Not Disturb, regardless of app settings.”, as commented on the Google Play Store.
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Released in 2016 and available on both Apple and Google Play stores, MyShake uses a smartphone’s motion sensors to turn it into a seismic instrument. Each device helps create a distributed, global earthquake monitoring network. As Dr. Richard Allen, director of the Berkeley Seismology Lab, said in research published in Frontiers in Earth Science (2018), “Every smartphone user contributes to a vast network, helping us understand earthquakes in unprecedented ways” (DOI: 10.3389/feart.2018.00237).
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What does this look like in practice? When enough phones in an area detect a similar motion, the app recognizes the pattern and triggers data collection. The system’s machine learning algorithms, described in peer-reviewed work such as Seismological Research Letters (DOI: 10.1785/0220180309), help researchers distinguish real seismic events from everyday activity. Contributions from MyShake users have allowed scientists to refine models for ground shaking, identify new fault lines, and develop tools for monitoring the structural health of buildings.
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The app offers customizable global quake maps, preparedness tips, and the ability to share earthquake experiences directly with other users and researchers. For earthquake warnings, MyShake is configured to send alerts for events at magnitude 4.5 or greater in areas of light shaking or more. Users can also select notifications for local tremors as small as magnitude 3.0.
If you live in the area, why not give it a try?
To maintain optimum readiness, MyShake recommends that users open the app at least once a month. This ensures background processes remain active and that the app is up to date for both delivering alerts and contributing valuable data. For anyone living in a quake-prone region or interested in advancing earthquake science, MyShake offers both practical warning and a meaningful opportunity to support ongoing research. To learn more or join the network, the app is free to download on Google Play and Apple’s App Store.
YouTube: MyShake Tutorial with Angela Chung
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Photo credit: The feature image is symbolic and has been done by Nigel Spiers. The photo captures the aftermath in Christchurch, New Zealand, on March 26, 2011. A house in Avonside lies in ruins following the city’s most powerful earthquake, a 7.1 magnitude event on the Richter scale, as per the photographer.
