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Even a few seconds warning prior to a devastating earthquake could save thousands of lives. But Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) systems are too pricey for governments in some of the most earthquake prone regions – including Asia, Central and South America, and the Caribbean. Now a group of scientists think they may have found a solution: a crowd-sourced EEW network using consumers’ smartphones.

Writing in the April 10, 2015 issue of Science Advances, nine researchers – hailing from the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, California; CalTech and JPL in Pasadena, the National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping at the University of Houston, and Carnegie-Mellon – explain the rationale behind their research as well as its results.
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A new, ultra-fast wireless Internet network may overpower GPS signals across the US, interfering not only with the GPS in your car, but also airplanes. This is not just an annoyance: Researchers are unveiling a new tool to use GPS to detect nuclear explosions set off by rogue countries and terrorists.
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If you have a cellphone, you soon will no longer be able to hide-the government will be able to track you down. Cellphone manufacturers are under a federal mandate to equip mobile phones with location-tracking devices,beginning this October. GPS chips will be planted in the handsets so that by 2005, 95 percent of all cellphones will be able to be traced with an accuracy of about 1,000 feet or better.

These cellphones could be lifesavers in an emergency, but there is the question of an invasion of privacy. “For most people, it’s a very scary proposition that the government can use not only your mobile phone but your Palm Pilots.and any other mobile device to track your every movement,” saysattorney Albert Gidari of Seattle.
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