Cody Hitchcock and Noah Gray

Messenger Staff Writer

The newly created ShakeAlert device, predicted the 6.0 earthquake in Napa, CA, 10 seconds before it hit.

The large earthquake hit Napa, California on August 24th, at around 3:20 in the morning and the University of California’s Berkeley’s ShakeAlert earthquake detection system predicted the quake 10 seconds before it hit.

Senior Hannah Anderson believes that we should not worry about earthquakes and “just let them happen.”

“They (Berkeley seismology specialists) are obsessed with knowing what we don’t need to know,” stated Anderson.

ShakeAlert works by sensing the earlier P-Waves, a weak early stage of the earthquake. It measures the wave, then predicts when the larger S-Wave will hit, the destructive part of an earthquake.

Some people believe, a warning is not all they need to protect themselves against the earthquake. People must learn how to react to a warning.

“10 seconds is not enough time” said Placer teacher Joshua Green.

This warning was a small step into the future of earthquake prediction, and possibly injury and causality prevention.

Green stated that “we should use the available technology for early alert notification systems.”

Green also believes that we should offer grants to colleges and students who are studying seismology and that could increase the amount of time the warning gives.