Google's Earthquake Alert System Failure

Google's Android Earthquake Alerts (AEA) system, touted as a 'global safety net', experienced a significant failure during the catastrophic 2023 earthquake in Turkey. The system, which operates in nearly 100 countries, drastically underestimated the magnitude of the seismic event, resulting in inadequate warnings to the affected population.

The AEA system, designed to detect shaking through Android devices and send out early warnings, failed to accurately assess the severity of the 7.8 magnitude quake. Instead of issuing high-level 'Take Action' alerts to an estimated 10 million people within the impact zone, only 469 such warnings were dispatched. This critical error potentially deprived millions of up to 35 seconds of life-saving warning time.

In the aftermath, Google's researchers have acknowledged the system's limitations and have since modified their algorithms. A simulated re-run of the event with the updated system generated the appropriate number of high-level alerts. However, this belated improvement has raised concerns among experts about the reliability of such systems and the potential over-reliance on them by countries lacking national warning systems.