The recent quake on the East Coast got you feeling antsy? Need to know when and where—and how strong—other land-shakes are? We've found five apps (three for iOS and two for Android) that will keep you in the know. Check them out below.
Platform: iOS
Price: $1.99
This aptly titled app can display quake and tsunami reports from geo-tagged Twitter users, plus it gathers earthquake intel from several reporting agencies, including the U.S. Geological Survey, GeoNet, Natural Resources Canada, and GeoScience Australia. The app also supports push notifications for recent seismic activity, and its color-and size-coded pins display on fully integrated Google Maps to help point to the danger zone.
Platform: Android
Price: Free
Not only does the Earthquake Alert! app allow Android users to see earthquakes and their epicenters in Google Maps, it can be set to alert shaker chasers to activity of a specific magnitude, duration, and proximity. Boost Earthquake Alert's alertness by setting it to update every 15, 30, 60 minutes, as opposed to once or twice each day.
Platform: iOS
Price: $0.99
With QuakeWatch, quake watchers can research ground-shaking phenomenon by entering a specific geographic location. The app does a thorough job of collecting even minor seismic activity: its tracker displays dozens of events on a Google Map--plus it's chronicle of past quakes reaches back 30 years. Users can easily save place-specific searches in My Zones for future reference.
Platform: Android
Price: Free
What's one seismology data source against six? Though simple in title, Earthquakes funnels data from several international sources, including the Japan Meteorological Agency, U.S. Geological Survey, EU Mediterranean Earthquake Centre, and others. Searches for historical quakes can be filtered by shake-i-tude (or, magnitude), time, terrain depth, and world region. Map views can be toggled from satellite view to traffic view (to help Californians pinpoint the traffic jams caused by plate shifts, for instance).
Platform: iOS
Price: $1.99
Billed as a "real-time earthquake monitor," Shake might be the friendliest of the Earthquake apps. Not because of its inviting nature of its clean, white-and-black interface,but because of its ability to live-search Twitter, right inside the app. If constant searches for panicky tweets isn't your thing, try setting up a few Monitored Zones. When you next launch the application, new reports on seismic activity for the specified region will await you.
