Earthquake detection app registers better than expected

UPDATE: 6:20 p.m.

Geologist Dr. Nancy Moll at College of the Desert is one of many learning about MyShake, an app developed out of U.C. Berkeley that creators said can turn your smartphone into a seismograph, shaking up the way earthquakes are recorded.

“These accelerometers are used for all sorts of different applications like step-tracking, or when you’re playing your video games, it knows which way you’re turning the phone,” Berkeley Seismological Laboratory External Relations Officer Dr. Jennifer Strauss said. “But why not see if you can harness that power to also do earthquake monitoring?”

So far, experts said the app has detected more than 200 earthquakes in more than 10 countries.

Moll said it could provide more data, which may lead to a new look at quakes.

“The P-Wave, which is the first wave that hits, is the wave you first notice when you go, ‘Oh. That’s an earthquake,” Moll said. “That wave doesn’t do damage. But if they can detect it close to the site of where a major earthquake is starting, you can send the signals at the speed of light.”

Which she and developers said could lead to a potential early warning system.

“If you can look at features that small, and that worldwide, you can start probing doing actual seismology with this data,” Strauss said. “So, that really opens up parts of the world that were previously inaccessible to this kind of work.”

Right now, the app is available right now for Android users, but developers said they are working on a version for iPhones.

For up to the minute earthquake information — you can also download the First-Alert Weather app — by searching “KESQ First Alert” or “CBS First Alert” in your app store.

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ORIGINAL STORY: 5:07 p.m.

An app we reported about a few months ago, used as an earthquake detection program, is registering even better than scientists were expecting.

Zak Dahlheimer met with experts on Friday to learn how the detection program is performing and how local experts are reacting to it.

Learn more about the app that’s reinventing the early detection process for earthquakes tonight on CBS Local 2 at 5:30 p.m. and on KESQ News Channel 3 at 6 p.m.