European Championship final and earthquake warning

Yesterday afternoon we were in Selfoss to watch the final of the Women's European Football Championship on Brúartorg, the "bridge square" in the new city center.

It wasn't terribly crowded, but still quite well attended. Even though most of the spectators were cheering for England, there was still a group behind us whose hearts also beat for the German team, and at some point a German family happened to settle down next to us.

So we weren't the only ones who celebrated when the German players equalized!

Skjáltaviðvörun - earthquake warning

At some point, however, I got distracted - when I looked at my phone, Google showed me an earthquake warning:

My cell phone reported that there was a magnitude 5.5 earthquake 108 km away.

There was a picture that the epicenter of the quake was in the south of Reykjanes.

And I was given behavioral measures: Be sure to put on shoes! (Even if you're just walking from one room to another.) You should pay attention to the smell of gas and avoid entering damaged buildings.

We then immediately checked the news site of Morgunblaðið (mbl.is) and the website of the Meteorological Institute (vedur.is) - nothing was shown in the recordings of the earthquakes.

Shortly afterwards the headline appeared on mbl: Big earthquake right now!

On vedur.is, the 5:48 p.m. quake was not yet shown in the 5:50 p.m. update and the 5:55 p.m. update, only in the 6:00 p.m. update. And it took several more hours until the earthquake was finally officially classified as having a magnitude of 5.4 on the Richter scale.

Somehow I was distracted by the earthquake warning and was only able to follow the final of the Women's European Championship in London with half my attention because I always had one eye on my cell phone...

I have now learned how this cell phone warning works:

Android phones now contain tiny measuring instruments that can detect vibrations. When the phone detects something it thinks might be an earthquake, it sends a signal including the approximate location to Google's earthquake server. The server then compares the message with the information from other smartphones in the wider area - and then issues an earthquake warning based on the available data. With this, Google has apparently created the “world’s largest earthquake detection system”.

The whole thing is remarkably accurate: The Google alert showed me a magnitude 5.5 earthquake. It took 10 minutes for the official measuring stations to even report the earthquake, and it took several hours for the quake to be officially rated at 5.4.

And the Google warning system is also remarkably fast:

I must have had the warning on my cell phone before the tremors were felt here. According to mathematical calculations in the Icelandic media, it takes almost 10 seconds before the Grindavík tremor is felt in Reykjavík, and then another about 10 seconds until the tremor reaches Selfoss - so almost 20 seconds before the Selfoss earthquake is felt could.

The Google warning system is so quick at comparing data that I had the warning on my phone before the tremors were felt here in Selfoss 20 seconds after the quake.

I'm not sure whether the few seconds left between receiving the warning and the arrival of the tremors would be enough to read the message and then at least put on shoes or turn off the gas, but the speed of the earthquake warning I think it's brilliant and so is the accuracy!

Damage is reported from Grindavík

The earthquake that occurred shortly before 6 p.m. caused damage in Grindavík. The cold water pipe to Grindavík arrives at Svartsengi, so the town was without cold water for a short time. Repair work began yesterday and it is expected that the damage will be repaired during the day today - assuming no further strong earthquakes or damage occurs.

I've now seen pictures of the supermarket there, where a lot of goods had fallen off the shelves and a lot of glasses had broken and leaked. There were also pictures of a restaurant in Grindavík showing lots of broken glasses and dishes on the floor.

When I look at these pictures full of broken pieces, it becomes clear to me why Google might be right with the earthquake tip "Put your shoes on first!"

We then went back home after losing the final.

Later in the evening, the Brekkusöng on Heimaey, the big festival for the merchant's weekend here in Iceland, was broadcast live on the screen. It must have been really crowded and a great atmosphere, judging by the pictures I saw of it. But by that time we were back in our house...

[Translated from here.]