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The phones that detect earthquakes

On 25 October 2022, a 5.1-magnitude earthquake jolted California’s Bay Area. There was no damage reported, but the earthquake was significant in another way – many people in the area received alerts on their phones before the shaking started. More crucially still, many of these phones helped detect the earthquake in the first place, too. Google has been working with USGS and academics at a number of universities in California to develop an early warning system that alerts users a few seconds before tremors arrive.