
How the USGS uses Twitter data to track earthquakes - coloneltcb
https://blog.twitter.com/2015/usgs-twitter-data-earthquake-detection
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userbinator
_If they’re getting reports of an earthquake in a populated area but no Tweets
from there, that’s a good indicator to them that it’s a false alarm._

The other alternative is that the earthquake was so strong it destroyed all
the infrastructure in the area, leaving people unable to even tweet. You have
to consider all the failure modes carefully; an analogy that comes to mind is
cargo smoke detectors in aircraft - if one shows a fire but the indication
disappears shortly afterwards, there's a chance the fire destroyed the cabling
too.

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zyxley
I think it's _pretty_ likely that a seisomograph somewhere else is going to
notice an earthquake of that magnitude.

------
IIAOPSW
Randall Munroe is a prophet!

[https://xkcd.com/723/](https://xkcd.com/723/)

~~~
thekevan
The alt text for that comic is "The USGS operates a really neat email/SMS
earthquake notification service (earthquake.usgs.gov/ens/) that allows fine-
grained control of notifications." Sorry to be a fun spoiler!

