New smartphone app gathers information about earthquakes

They can happen almost anywhere, at anytime.

“We start feeling it shake, and that’s about the only warning that most people get,” Rancho Mirage Emergency Service Coordinator Britt Wilson said. “You might here a slight rattle of some of the glass, and then you know it’s coming.”

But researchers in California have developed a new smartphone app to help keep users up to date when the next earthquake hits, right at their fingertips.

According to researchers, the app MyShakeuses sensors built in smart phones to pick up movements and gather information moments after it hits.

Wilson and the app’s developers said the goal of the app isn’t to scare people, but to lead to another early alert system to help keep everybody aware and prepared.

“This is a great tool for people to learn about earthquakes,” Wilson said. “It tells you what to do, earthquake history, and it can read an earthquake if one’s occurring, and then send that data to UC Berkeley so they know the information about the quakes.”

Researchers said the way the app works is by collecting data from smartphone sensors, then sending that data to see whether or not it is an earthquake, and then sending information to users.

“I think it could be very useful,” Rancho Mirage resident Dick Williams said. “There’s certainly no doubt that the San Andreas Fault runs through all of California, and I lived in Anchorage, Alaska for many decades, where we have a lot of seismic activity.”

Developers said the app is available for all Android users, however developers say they’re designing a version for the iPhone.

Since they launched it in February, developers said they’ve had about 160,000 people download it so far.