Earthquake Early Warning: Advances, Scientific Challenges, and Societal Needs

Earthquake early warning (EEW) is the delivery of ground shaking alerts or warnings. It is distinguished from earthquake prediction in that the earthquake has nucleated to provide detectable ground motion when an EEW is issued. Here we review progress in the field in the last 10 years. We begin with EEW users, synthesizing what we now know about who uses EEW and what information they need and can digest. We summarize the approaches to EEW and gather information about currently existing EEW systems implemented in various countries while providing the context and stimulus for their creation and development. We survey important advances in methods, instrumentation, and algorithms that improve the quality and timeliness of EEW alerts. We also discuss the development of new, potentially transformative ideas and methodologies that could change how we provide alerts in the future. Earthquake early warning (EEW) is the rapid detection and characterization of earthquakes and delivery of an alert so that protective actions can be taken. EEW systems now provide public alerts in Mexico, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan and alerts to select user groups in India, Turkey, Romania, and the United States. EEW methodologies fall into three categories, point source, finite fault, and ground motion models, and we review the advantages of each of these approaches. The wealth of information about EEW uses and user needs must be employed to focus future developments and improvements in EEW systems.