IIT Roorkee Launches Earthquake Early Warning Mobile App

Uttarakhand Bhookamp Alert, the EEW app launched by IIT Roorkee, is available on both Android and iOS platforms, an official statement said.

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee on August 4 said it has launched “Uttarakhand Bhookamp Alert '', which is ‘India’s first’ Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) mobile app. The app is available for both Android and iOS platforms, it said. The project was sponsored by the Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority (USDMA). Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat launched the app on Wednesday. “It is a path-breaking achievement for the institute as it is the country's first application for notifying people about earthquake alerts,” IIT Roorkee said in a statement. IIT Roorkee said EEW is a real-time earthquake information system that can detect the onset of the earthquake and issue warnings. “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,” it said.