IIT Roorkee Scientists Develop Early Earthquake Warning Mobile App

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Scientists at IIT Roorkee have launched India’s first earthquake early warning smartphone app dubbed ‘Uttarakhand Bhookamp Alert’ to notify residents of imminent earthquakes in the region they reside in.

Reported first by PTI, the Uttarakhand Bhookamp app has been developed by IIT Roorkee and has been made available on both iOS and Android running smartphones. The project was funded by the Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority (USDMA).

The app is the first of its kind in India that would notify people about earthquake alerts while also helping in locating people trapped under structures in case the earthquake has occurred.

It is essentially an EEW (Earthquake Early Warning) -- a real-time earthquake information system that can detect the onset of an earthquake and issue warnings before tremors engulf the area. The system senses the speed of seismic waves that spread after the release of stress from the movement of faults.

The strong ground movement is the result of a heavy magnitude of these waves that travel at about half the speed of the primary waves and are slower than electromagnetic signals. EEW system uses this to its advantage.

The program was first rolled out as a pilot project by the Ministry of Earth Sciences for the Garhwal region of Uttarakhand. After it was proven to be successful, IIT Roorkee’s EEW project proposal was extended by the Uttarakhand Government.

IIT Roorkee director, Ajit K Chaturvedi said in a statement, “I take immense pride in sharing that IIT Roorkee has designed an Earthquake Early Warning mobile app for timely dissemination of information regarding an earthquake occurrence in the neighbourhood and the expected time of arrival and intensity at the location to prevent any loss of life.”

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