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I’m watching a mega-quake scare-umentary on the Discovery Channel about the well-known possibility of a major subduction zone quake off the coast of the Pacific Northwest. According to this program, it will take about two minutes from the start of the earthquake for the shaking to reach “inland” cities like Seattle, but the emergency services center won’t be able to warn these cities, despite receiving immediate notification of the quake.

There’s something very wrong with that. Even a ten second warning of an approaching quake could save lives by giving people time to get under their desks before the shaking begins. This is important not just because people can be hit by debris in the first few moments of an earthquake, but also because it can take a little bit of time before people realize what is happening and then fear can paralyze people.

Of course, notifying media outlets to make announcements would be incredibly inefficient. What could be done, however, would be to use a network similar to the Emergency Broadcast system to initiate a signal specific to an imminent earthquake. Recognition of this signal could be added to the goals of the earthquake drills currently conducted in schools and workplaces throughout the region.

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