28-07-2025
Google admits it failed to warn 10 million people during deadly Turkey earthquake in 2023
Two years after around 55,000 people died in the devastating earthquake in Turkey, Google has admitted that its earthquake alert system failed to send warnings. Turkey earthquake: An aerial view shows collapsed and damaged buildings following an earthquake in Hatay, Turkey.(Reuters)
As per a report by BBC, the tech giant admitted that its early warning system for earthquakes failed to send accurate alerts to around 10 million people during the 2023 deadly quake.
Two major earthquakes - of magnitudes 7.8 and 7.7 - struck southern and central Turkey, near the border with Syria on February 6, 2023. The strong tremors resulted in the deaths of around 55,000 people in Turkey and over 5,000 in Syria.
The report added that Google managed to send only 469 "Take Action" warnings for the first 7.8 magnitude earthquake. Google further told BBC that around half a million people were sent the lower level warning, which is made for "light shaking."
The tech company added that ten million people within 98 miles of the epicentre could have been sent the highest level alert, which would have given them around 35 seconds to find safety before impact.
Google's system—the Android Earthquake Alerts—is designed to detect shaking from a large number of Android phones. Due to the slow movement of earthquake, the Google system is often at times able to send out timely alerts.
The most serious alert in this system is the "Take Action" alert which sets off a loud alarm and will override the user's Do Not Disturb setting as well to alert of a major earthquake.
The 2023 earthquake in Turkey started at 4:17 AM. Hence, a Take Action alert at that time would have woken up users who could have then fled to safety.
What went wrong?
As per Google researchers, the system recorded a shaking between 4.5 to 4.9 magnitude, as opposed to a 7.8 on the moment magnitude scale - which is a scale used to measure the total energy released by a quake.
The BBC report added that the second large earthquake to hit Turkey was also underestimated with Take Action alerts going to around 8,158 phones and Ne Aware alerts to four million people.
In the aftermath of the earthquake, Google changed its algorithm and tested the alert system. As per BBC, this time, the Take Action alert went to around 10 million people at risk, and 67 million Be aware alerts to those around the epicentre.
