Earthquake: These Five Apps Can Offer Seismic Info, Early Warnings

An earthquake with a magnitude of 4.4 and an epicentre in Jhajjar, Haryana, led to tremors throughout the National Capital Region.

With almost the whole of north India susceptible to regular seismic activity, how can you stay safe? Here are five mobile apps available on both Android and iOS that offer earthquake-related information and can serve as early warning systems.

Developed by the National Center for Seismology, the app offers information on earthquake parameters, such as location, time and magnitude, following the occurrence of earthquakes, aiming to speed information transmission. Its software automatically estimates earthquake parameters using the incoming waveform data from remote monitoring stations.

A collaborative effort of IIT Roorkee and Uttarakhand government, BhuDev is an earthquake early warning app in India. The app offers warnings of earthquakes rooted in the Uttarakhand, which is a seismic zone, in a bid to safeguard users.

The app notifies users prior to the arrival of seismic waves. It offers real-time information on the basis of a crowdsourced Earthquake Early Warning system. When an earthquake is detected, the app sends a notification to every smartphone in the impacted region. The idea is to alert users who are situated away from the epicentre to take precautions before the seismic waves reach them.

A robust app for monitoring quakes, My Earthquake Alerts provides all the essential information through push notifications. It offers a live earthquake map from around the world, earthquake history, and location, depth and distance of earthquake from a user. 

Although it originally covered California, MyShake has evolved into a worldwide resource for earthquake information. The app offers early alerts and safety guidance related to earthquakes, along with a list of previous earthquakes around the globe.