Massey University surveyed 3000 people in October 2021 following two earthquakes that triggered Android Earthquake Alerts on Android phones. Photo: 123rf
New Zealanders do not know how to react if they get an earthquake alert, research from Massey University suggests.
Though New Zealand does not have an official early warning system for earthquakes, Google issues automatic warnings to Android phones if they detect shaking.
A survey of 3000 people conducted by Massey's Joint Centre for Disaster Research in October 2021, following two earthquakes that triggered Android Earthquake Alerts (AEA) on Android phones, sought to assess how much Kiwis know about the system, how they responded to it and whether they found it useful.
It showed a majority did not know what to do if they got an alert, and did not understand where they came from.
"We found that people responded to these particular alerts mostly by looking for more information or telling people around them" - Dr Lauren Vinnell
Author Dr Lauren Vinnell said the alerts could be useful but were not always accurate.
"Android earthquake early warning is essentially rapid detection, so it's not predicting an earthquake, what it is is it's detecting shaking really rapidly and then the Android system sends out alerts to Android smartphones to let the users know that they can expect shaking soon."
The idea was that giving people a few seconds warning that shaking was about to arrive would allow them to protect themselves, making it less likely that they would be injured, she said.
The survey found that generally people responded to the alerts by looking for more information or telling the people around them, she said.
"Which makes sense since this was really a novel system that hadn't really been communicated to the public - so people didn't really know what it was they had just received and what they were supposed to do."
Those who did not respond did not have enough time, did not understand the message, did not know what to do or expected the shaking to be light, she said.
She said that was not surprising despite the fact that New Zealanders have had a lot of experience with earthquakes, as Google had only launched the system in New Zealand a few months before the survey was taken, she said.
Only about a quarter to a third of people knew that the alert had come from Google, with most thinking it came from GNS Science, Geonet or the National Emergency Management Agency, she said.
"But it's really important that people know this isn't an official system - it's not linked to GNS or Geonet in any way."
Introducing an official early earthquake warning system would be very expensive and there would need to be a great deal of education around it, she said.
"We have to make sure that if we do have a system we can have the communication and education around it so that people know what it is and how to use it because if people don't know how to respond it could potentially do more harm than good."
She said anyone who felt an earthquake, whether they got an alert or not, should "drop, cover and hold" to protect themselves from the shaking.