back to article US Geological Survey detects earthquake on Twitter

Twitter has beaten instruments to the punch at the US Geological Survey – but the geeks at the country’s lead earth-sciences agency are perfectly happy. Launched last year to distribute earthquake information, the USGS has found its Tweet Earthquake Dispatch (TED) to be equally effective at receiving on-the-ground posts about …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Miguel Farah
    Alert

    Oh, XKCD might have something to say...

    Obligatory: xkcd.com/723/

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Hmmmm

      Suppose it is useful for one thing then, if you have followers?

  2. This post has been deleted by its author

  3. Goobertee
    Childcatcher

    News

    The first time I've heard of Twitter's possibly being useful.

    1. Pedigree-Pete
      Thumb Down

      Not if......

      Some bunch of TWITS decides to start spoof-tweeting

  4. Alan Brown Silver badge

    We used to joke

    in New Zealand that the most sensitive device ever invented for detecting the effects of an earthquake was the telephone exchange. The longer it's overloaded, the bigger the quake was.

    I didn't believe that until I was working in one and saw how much it lit up before the rumble of a very small (richter 4.2 or thereabouts) shake had even finished. It really does seem that everyone wants to ring all their friends/neighbours to compare notes.

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like