Wednesday morning’s earthquake was initially overestimated as having a 5.7 magnitude by ShakeAlert USGS, which triggered the WEAS emergency alert on our cellphones. Ultimately, the earthquake’s magnitude was downgraded to 4.2.
“Our goal is public safety. And so yes, there are going to be events that will be overestimated because every earthquake is a little different,” said Robert-Michael de Groot, coordinator at ShakeAlert Earthquake Early Warning System, USGS. “The most important point about the earthquake early warning system is public safety. We try to maximize public safety.”
De Groot said the fact that MyShake overestimated the magnitude of this quake is “the system doing what it does normally.”
Read more at KQED.