Los Angeles recently unveiled ShakeAlertLA, its earthquake early warning app that can be downloaded and used with Android and Apple smartphones. The app is designed to work the U.S. Geological Survey’s earthquake early warning system and provide people seconds to prepare before shaking from a distant earthquake arrives at a user’s location. A warning of a few seconds can save lives, giving people invaluable moments to seek safety. It could even prevent impacts to critical infrastructure by allowing facilities time to shut down operations. For instance, a similar system helped prevent deadly derailments of high-speed trains in Japan before shaking arrived from the magnitude 9.1 earthquake of 2011, signaling the trains to slow down. These warnings could soon be made available outside of Los Angeles and to users across California. Read the fulll article at the Los Angeles Times.