Earthquake early warning (EEW) is the rapid detection of earthquakes underway and the alerting of people and infrastructure in harms way. Public warning systems are now operational in Mexico and Japan, and smaller-scale systems deliver alerts to specific users in Turkey, Taiwan, China, Romania, and the United States. The warnings can arrive seconds to minutes before strong shaking, and a review of early warning applications around the world shows this time can be used to reduce the impact of an earthquake by many sectors of society. Individuals can use the alert time to drop, cover, and hold on, reducing injuries and fatalities, or if alert time allows, evacuate hazardous buildings. Train derailments can be reduced, chemical splits limited, patients in hospitals protected, fire ignitions prevented; workers in hazardous environments protected from fall/pinch hazards, reducing head injuries and/or death. It is impossible to complete an exhaustive list of applications and savings generated by a warning system in the United States, but the benefits clearly outweigh the costs. Three lives saved, two semiconductor plants warned, one Bay Area Rapid Transit train slowed, a 1% reduction in nonfatal injuries, and a 0.25% avoidance of gas-related fire damage would each save enough money to pay for 1 year of operation of a public warning system for the entire U.S. West Coast. EEW could also reduce the number of injuries in earthquakes by more than 50%.

MyShake is a global seismic platform that uses private citizens' smartphones to detect earthquakes and record both ground shaking and users' experiences. The goal is to reduce earthquake risk and provide users with a resource for earthquake science and information. It is powered by the participation of users, therefore, its success as a global network and its utility for the users themselves is reliant on their engagement and continued involvement. This paper discusses the citizen scientist participation that enables MyShake, with specific attention to the human-centered design process that was used to overhaul the mobile application's user interface. After the successful initial launch of the application in February of 2016, we had the opportunity to revisit the user interface based on user feedback and needs. The process began with an assessment of the user and geographic distribution of the original user base through surveys and Google Play Store analytics. Subsequently, through systematic examination of the motivations and needs of community members in the San Francisco Bay Area and iterative evaluations of design decisions, MyShake was redesigned to appeal as a resource to a wider range of users in earthquake-prone regions. The new user interface was then evaluated through interviews, surveys, and meetups with potential users. We highlight the human-centered methodology we employed, as well as the roadblocks we faced, in the hopes that our experience will be valuable to other citizen science projects in the future.

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positioning system (GPS)/global navigation satellite system (GNSS) antennas embedded in low-cost consumer electronics, sea-floor seismometers, geodetic instrumentation deployed along the Cascadia and Alaska megathrust margins of western North America, and borehole strainmeters that are already deployed across the region.

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