Google widens Earthquake Alerts and expands disaster forecasting tools
The changes extend early warnings and live disaster maps to more people, giving communities more time to respond before danger spreads.
Google said it is widening its Android Earthquake Alerts System, which uses phones as a crowdsourced warning network and is meant to give people time to react before shaking starts. The company also highlighted its other disaster tools: flood forecasts that reach more than two billion people in 150 countries, cyclone forecasts out to 15 days, and near-real-time wildfire boundary maps available in 34 countries. Google said FireSat, its planned satellite constellation, is intended to spot and track fires as small as a classroom within 20 minutes after completion. It added that in 2025 its crisis information reached people more than 10 million times a day on average. The update was released on International ShakeOut Day alongside a new Crisis Resilience white paper.
Why it matters
For people in areas exposed to quakes, floods, cyclones and wildfires, the update means alerts and forecasts now cover more places and, in some cases, reach further ahead. That widens the chance to act before damage grows, while FireSat is meant to add faster fire detection once it is completed. The scale of crisis information use also shows these tools are already reaching people at large volume.
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Sources
- Google Blog