• India’s first earthquake early warning (EEW) mobile app has been launched.
• On August 4, 2021, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) informed that it has launched the ‘Uttarakhand Bhookamp alert’ app.
• The chief minister of Uttarakhand launched the app.
• The app will be available for both android as well as iOS.
• It is a great achievement for the institute as this is the first application that will inform or notify people about earthquake alerts.
• This project was provided funds from the Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority (USDMA).
• Firstly, this app was launched as a pilot project only by the Earth Science Ministry for the Garhwal region for Uttarakhand, however, the project proposal was further extended by the State Government.
IMPORTANCE OF THIS APP: –
• It is the first system that can detect every information about the occurrence of the earthquake in the neighborhood whether it is the onset of an earthquake and issue warning related to it.
• This app will also inform us of the expected date of arrival of the earthquake as well as the intensity of the earthquake to prevent the loss.
• This is the only app that can record the information of the people who are stuck somewhere at the time of the earthquake and then this will send the report to the disaster response force.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
• The physical basis for an earthquake early warning system is the speed of the seismic waves, which propagate after the release of stress from faults movement.
• The strong ground shaking is caused by shear waves which travel at about half the speed of the primary waves and much slower than electromagnetic signals.
The EEW system exploits this advantage.
