Since earthquake seismic waves travel slower than radio waves (obviously), its possible to warn cities ahead of time when an earthquake is coming. Today in California a 10-second warning was provided in Napa. This may not seem like a lot, but the goal is to build a state-wide early-warning system that would give Los Angeles a roughly 50-second warning before a major earthquake from the San Andreas fault. This would allow elevators to stop, fire station doors to open, and other automated systems to trigger in advance of the tremors. Very cool science and engineering being applied. Heres a video of the actual warning generated today: youtube/watch?v=DwdCJ31LFGI
Posted on: Mon, 25 Aug 2014 05:56:07 +0000