AI in Earthquake Early Warning Quiz

Answers and explanations appear as you take the quiz.

1. What physical fact makes earthquake early warning possible at all?
   • Fast P-waves arrive before slower, more destructive S-waves
   • Earthquakes can be predicted weeks in advance
   • AI can stop an earthquake from happening
   • Radio signals travel faster than light
2. Why is there a 'blind zone' near the epicenter?
   • Sensors break during quakes
   • Shaking arrives before any alert can be sent
   • AI ignores nearby quakes
   • The internet is too slow only near faults
3. How does Google's Android Earthquake Alerts System detect quakes?
   • Satellites scanning fault lines
   • Underground fiber-optic cables only
   • Accelerometers in millions of smartphones
   • Weather radar
4. What input does the original PhaseNet model use to pick seismic arrivals?
   • A year of future earthquake dates
   • Only photographs of fault lines
   • A list of smartphone contacts
   • Three-component seismic waveforms
5. What warning time can earthquake early warning provide in favorable conditions?
   • Seconds to tens of seconds
   • Several hours
   • About 30 minutes
   • Two to three days
6. What information does a seismic early-warning system estimate after detecting an event?
   • The exact date of the next unrelated earthquake
   • The earthquake’s location and magnitude to support shaking alerts
   • A guarantee that no damage will occur
   • An instruction that stops tectonic motion
7. Does earthquake early warning predict when an earthquake will occur?
   • Yes, years before a fault ruptures
   • It prevents earthquakes
   • No; it detects an earthquake already underway and estimates incoming shaking
   • It predicts only aftershocks
8. Which output categories does PhaseNet estimate along a seismic waveform?
   • Only a building’s repair cost
   • Rainfall, wind and humidity categories
   • A guarantee that a future earthquake will occur
   • P-wave arrival, S-wave arrival and noise probabilities