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Comment by Aboutplants | Hacker News Reader

45 seconds is an incredible accomplishment. That’s a decent amount of heads up to get safer place. Obviously nerve wracking but great progress in alerts

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Earthquake early warning systems are a top 10 peak human achievement in my book. No joke, I tear up watching videos of Japan's EEW system alerting people of possible danger just in time.

There are streamers who's whole thing is watching these alerts and setting up bobbleheads and glasses of water and stuff to show the shaking. It's so so so cool. Look at what we can do for each other you guys :')

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imH-ZyXwX5Q

This clip always gets me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUamLkVCtLg

It sounds impressive but it's worth considering that this was a large quake that was felt by basically half of the country. You do not get this much warning if you are anywhere near where damage happens.

The 45 seconds is better thought of as the time it takes for the quake to propagate to Tokyo

TBF you don't need substantial structural damage for falling objects to pose a serious hazard. Plus the relationship of warning length to extent of damage depends entirely on the strength of the earthquake. For the worst ones where you need it the most the majority of the country could get a fair bit of warning.

Yeah. That's leagues better than what I get in Taiwan. The alert often arrives when the building is shaking or even after. I've never had a meaningful headstart.

It would seem the forewarning depends a lot on the distance from the epicentre. This quake, for Tokyoites, was far enough from them that they could beat the earthquake's speed. I'm fairly certain the people on the East Coast near the quake got no notification ahead of the event.

I was in a chat with people in NYC when it hit. They got advance notice, although it was just “why is everything shaking?” Followed by me going silent for a bit, so they didn’t know what was going on until it reached them.

Sorry? I don't get it. Why are you mentioning NYC? Was it a joke?

When the 2011 earthquake happened, those particular folks in NYC got a cryptic notice from me shortly before the shaking reached them.

I was thinking of the more recent quake which I very much felt and heard in my older detached home in Queens. I was in Farmingdale out in Suffolk during the 2011 quake. I got up to walk from my desk, took a few steps then suddenly became disoriented for a few seconds as if I was dizzy. Then my coworker shouts "Holy shit did you just feel that? That was an earthquake!"

I usually get it a few seconds ahead of time at least, in Taipei. I figured it's more related to the proximity than anything else.

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