Latest news with #AEA
CTV News
3 days ago
- Climate
- CTV News
Town of Slave Lake, surrounding areas on 8-hour wildfire evacuation notice
Thousands of people in the town of Slave Lake and surrounding area are on evacuation notice due to a nearby wildfire. The alert is in effect for the areas that include Devonshire Road North and everyone in the MD of Lesser Slave River, Hamlet of Marten Beach, Summerwood, Township Road 740 and Gillwood Gold Course, according to Alberta Emergency Alert (AEA). Sunday evening Slave Lake mayor Francesca Ward posted on social media saying the town has issued an eight-hour evacuation notice. 'This does not mean you need to leave immediately – it means we want you to have time to be ready in case things change,' Ward said Sunday evening. People in the area of MD of Lesser Slave River should be prepared to evacuate within four hours, AEA said. The wildfire is burning out of control northeast of Slave Lake and east of Highway 88. The fire is less than a square kilometre in size.
Indian Express
6 days ago
- Science
- Indian Express
Android phones can detect earthquakes before they strike, say scientists
In 2020, Google introduced the Android Earthquake Alert (AEA) system for people with smartphones living in earthquake-prone regions. Compared to expensive earthquake early warning systems, scientists say Google's feature is very accurate and cost-effective, as it does not require a dedicated seismic station. Available on Android devices in 98 countries, Google's earthquake alert system has now expanded to cover more than 2.5 billion people in just three years. Since the Android Earthquake Alert system works by gathering data from millions of Android devices, one might wonder if it actually works. As it turns out, crowdfunding data is a really good idea. According to a recent study published in the journal Science, Google's Android Earthquake Alert system is so effective that it is on par with traditional seismic networks in terms of detecting earthquakes and issuing alerts. In the study, researchers said that 'AEA demonstrates that globally distributed smartphones can be used to detect earthquakes and issue warnings at scale with effectiveness comparable to established national systems.' It goes on to say that while the accelerometers in smartphones are less sensitive than the equipment used in seismic networks, they are still capable of detecting ground motions. The study goes on to say that around 70 per cent of the total smartphones in the world are powered by Android and that between 2021 and 2024, the Google AEA system detected an average of 312 earthquakes in 98 countries that had a magnitude between 1.9 and 7.8. As it turns out, 85 per cent of users who received earthquake alerts also experienced sharing. Out of these, 36 per cent said they got an alert before the earthquake, while 28 per cent and 23 per cent of people said they received an alert during and after the shaking began. In the video below, the yellow dots indicate the number of smartphones nearby, while the red dot marks the epicentre. The yellow circle is the P-wave's estimated location, and the red circle is for the S-wave, which is responsible for most of the damage. The animation shows how phones detected shaking as the 6.2 magnitude earthquake progressed in Turkey, causing damage and loss of life in the country. In a blog post, Google explained that its Android Earthquake Alert system uses accelerometer sensors in smartphones to sense vibrations, which may or may not indicate if an earthquake is happening. If the system thinks an earthquake is imminent, it then sends a signal to the tech giant's earthquake detection server along with an approximate location of where the shaking was recorded. The server then combines data from various smartphones in the vicinity to determine if an earthquake is actually happening. With more than 2 billion devices around the world acting as mini-earthquake detectors, Google says its system is the world's largest earthquake detection network.
CNBC
6 days ago
- Politics
- CNBC
Men Trump administration had sent to El Salvador's CECOT prison exchanged in prisoner swap
The Venezuelan immigrants whom the Trump administration had sent to a notorious mega prison in El Salvador have been flown from there to Venezuela, according to El Salvador President Nayib Bukele. The move, Bukele said in a post on X, was part of a prisoner swap in which the Venezuelan government agreed to release "a considerable number of Venezuelan political prisoners ... as well as all the American citizens it was holding as hostages" in exchange for the Venezuelan nationals who had been detained in El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center, known as CECOT. A senior administration official told NBC News that ten U.S. nationals who had been detained by Venezuela were on their way home. "We will keep demanding the return of all the Venezuelans kidnapped by the government of the United States, kidnapped by the government of El Salvador," Venezuelan Minister of Interior, Justice and Peace Diosdado Cabello said in televised remarks Friday. "All of them, we demand that they return them to our country. To their home country." The CECOT detainees were deported from the U.S. under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a rarely-employed wartime law. The Trump administration has declared that Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang, is an invading force, and has been using that declaration and the AEA to quickly deport Venezuelan immigrants who it says have ties to TdA. More than 200 men — some of them asylum seekers who said they were at risk of persecution in Venezuela — were sent to CECOT in March. Family members of several men believed to be in CECOT have denied they had any ties to TdA and have pleaded for them to be returned back to Venezuela. The American Civil Liberties Union, which sued the administration over its use of the AEA in March, told NBC News it had not been told about the CECOT detainees' release before it happened. Responding to Reuters' reporting earlier Friday about the prisoner swap agreement, the ACLU said in a statement, "We were not informed in advance and don't know the details but assuming the rumors are true, the government allowed these individuals to languish in a notorious gulag for more than four months with zero due process and with this latest maneuver appears to be trying to avoid all court rulings."
NBC News
6 days ago
- Politics
- NBC News
Men Trump administration had sent to El Salvador's CECOT prison exchanged in prisoner swap
The Venezuelan immigrants whom the Trump administration had sent to a notorious mega prison in El Salvador have been flown from there to Venezuela, according to El Salvador President Nayib Bukele. The move, Bukele said in a post on X, was part of a prisoner swap in which the Venezuelan government agreed to release "a considerable number of Venezuelan political prisoners ... as well as all the American citizens it was holding as hostages" in exchange for the Venezuelan nationals who had been detained in El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center, known as CECOT. A senior administration official told NBC News that ten U.S. nationals who had been detained by Venezuela were on their way home. 'We will keep demanding the return of all the Venezuelans kidnapped by the government of the United States, kidnapped by the government of El Salvador,' Venezuelan Minister of Interior, Justice and Peace Diosdado Cabello said in televised remarks Friday. 'All of them, we demand that they return them to our country. To their home country.' The CECOT detainees were deported from the U.S. under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a rarely-employed wartime law. The Trump administration has declared that Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang, is an invading force, and has been using that declaration and the AEA to quickly deport Venezuelan immigrants who it says have ties to TdA. More than 200 men — some of them asylum seekers who said they were at risk of persecution in Venezuela — were sent to CECOT in March. Family members of several men believed to be in CECOT have denied they had any ties to TdA and have pleaded for them to be returned back to Venezuela. The American Civil Liberties Union, which sued the administration over its use of the AEA in March, told NBC News it had not been told about the CECOT detainees' release before it happened. Responding to Reuters' reporting earlier Friday about the prisoner swap agreement, the ACLU said in a statement, 'We were not informed in advance and don't know the details but assuming the rumors are true, the government allowed these individuals to languish in a notorious gulag for more than four months with zero due process and with this latest maneuver appears to be trying to avoid all court rulings.'
USA Today
6 days ago
- Science
- USA Today
Here's how your phone could save your life if an earthquake hits
A worldwide Android smartphone-based earthquake detection and early warning system can detect seismic activity in real time Could your smartphone save your life? If an earthquake is occurring, it just might. A worldwide Android smartphone-based earthquake detection and early warning system can detect seismic activity in real time – and deliver life-saving alerts that are just as effective as that of traditional seismic networks, according to a new study published July 17 in the journal Science. The Android Earthquake Alerts (AEA) system, which was developed by engineers at Google and the University of California-Berkeley, uses the phones' sensors to detect seismic activity and deliver early-warning alerts to users before dangerous shaking begins. "Earthquakes are a constant threat to communities around the globe," wrote Google engineer Mark Stogaitis on a Google blog post about the new study. "While we've gotten good at knowing where they're likely to strike, we still face devastating consequences when they do." "What if we could give people a few precious seconds of warning before the shaking starts? Those seconds can be enough time to get off a ladder, move away from dangerous objects and take cover," he wrote. Safety: This is what to do before, during and after an earthquake Indeed, the widespread use of smartphones globally has created a powerful platform for sensing and delivering earthquake alerts, according to a statement from Science. "While the sensors in smartphones are not as precise as those in traditional seismic stations, they are still capable of detecting ground shaking during significant earthquakes." How does it work? According to Google, "the accelerometer in an Android phone, the same sensor that flips the screen when it's turned sideways, can also detect the ground shaking from an earthquake. If a stationary phone detects the initial, faster-moving 'P-wave' of an earthquake, it sends a signal to our earthquake detection server, along with a coarse location of where the shaking occurred." The system then quickly analyzes data from many phones to confirm that an earthquake is happening and estimate its location and magnitude. The goal is to warn as many people as possible before the slower, more damaging "S-wave" of an earthquake reaches them. The system sends out two types of alerts: How successful has it been? According to Google, feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Of the more than 1.5 million people who responded to a survey, 85% found the alerts to be "very helpful." Overall, during its first three years of operation (2021-2024), the AEA system detected an average of 312 earthquakes per month, spanning magnitudes from M 1.9 to a maximum of M 7.8 across 98 countries, according to the study. "The system has now detected over 18,000 earthquakes, from small tremors of M1.9 to major quakes reaching M7.8," Stogaitis wrote. "For the events significant enough to warn people, alerts were issued for over 2000 earthquakes, culminating in 790 million alerts being sent to phones worldwide. This included more than half-a-million people in Turkey and Syria who received an alert on February 6, 2023, just before a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck. according to a report. The impact has been a greater than tenfold change in the number of people with access to earthquake early warning systems. "In 2019, only about 250 million people had access. Today, thanks in large part to the Android system, that number has increased to 2.5 billion," he said. As an example, in the magnitude 6.2 earthquake in Turkey in April 2025, the first alert was issued 8 seconds after the earthquake began. People who experienced moderate to strong shaking had a warning time of a few to 20 seconds. In this event, over 16 million alerts were delivered. 'Comparable to established national systems' Stogaitis concluded that "what's most exciting is that our system is constantly learning and improving... In the future, this system could not only provide warnings but also deliver rapid post-earthquake information to emergency responders, helping them to quickly assess the areas most in need." According to the study, "AEA demonstrates that globally distributed smartphones can be used to detect earthquakes and issue warnings at scale with an effectiveness comparable to established national systems. (However,) large earthquakes remain the most important and challenging for all earthquake early warning systems."
