IIT Roorkee develops a useful earthquake detection mobile app

[ad_1]

While earthquakes are devastating when they strike an area, early warnings of an upcoming earthquake can help people take action to protect themselves and their loved ones. With this in mind, IIT Roorkee has developed a mobile app that can detect early signs of earthquakes and provide warnings to Android and iOS smartphone users.

Uttarakhand, one of the most earthquake-hit districts in India, recently witnessed the launch of this app by the state’s CM Pushkar Singh Dhami. The life-saving app, called ‘Uttarakhand Bhookamp Alert’, searches for signs of a possible earthquake in the Uttarakhand region and warns users to evacuate.

“Uttarakhand is an earthquake prone state, thus this app will help the authorities in carrying out rescue operations during the earthquake,” the director of the Uttarakhand Department said during the official launch event. The app is developed by Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority in partnership with IIT Roorkee.

The Prime Minister launched the “Uttarakhand Earthquake Alert” application in the Secretariat. Created by the State Disaster Management Authority, Disaster Management and Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, this app will provide earthquake early warning through this app. Uttarakhand is the first country that made this app pic.twitter.com/LfWndxgm7Z

– PIB in Uttarakhand (IPIBDehradun) August 4, 2021

How it works?

When the mobile app is launched, it uses a system called the Earthquake Early Warning System (EEW), which is a real-time earthquake information system. The said system can detect early signs of a potential earthquake and issue warnings long before it hits the area.

For those unaware, before an earthquake hits an area, it produces different types of seismic waves due to faults in the motions of tectonic plates. While the destructive ground vibrations are the result of an earthquake’s shear waves, elementary waves and electromagnetic signals travel at lower speeds than shear waves.

Therefore, according to the developers, the EEW system takes advantage of this feature and detects the initial waves and electromagnetic signals of a potential earthquake to issue warnings. In this way, it can send warning notifications to users via the Uttarakhand Bhookamp Alert app before the earthquake hits the area.

Availability

Due to the availability of the mobile application, Uttarakhand Bhookamp Alert is available for both iOS and Android. It was initially launched as a pilot project by the Ministry of Earth Sciences for Garhwal District in Uttarakhand. After the app was successful in detecting the early signs of an earthquake, the EEW project was extended by the government of Uttarakhand.

Speaking about the mobile application, IIT-Roorkee Director Ajit K Chaturvedi said: “I am very proud to share that IIT-R has built an Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) mobile application, to disseminate timely information regarding an earthquake in the neighborhood and the expected time to reach and distress on site to prevent any loss of life.”

Download the Uttarakhand Bhookamp Alert App (Android | iOS)

[ad_2]