Worth noting that the state of warning systems there is somewhere between dismal and non-existent and the disaster preparedness of most cities seems to vary between unprepared and comically inept.
Is there anything anyone can do to set up an alert for these sorts of things?
If these predictions are true, there's a good chance that the entirety of Silicon Valley could be utterly destroyed. You'd think people would take more of an interest in preventing that.
Earthquakes are, for now, impossible to predict so there is little forewarning (and not for the lack of people trying). However, there is a huge interest in the geological/hazards community in earthquake early warning systems in the US, especially focused on California[1][2]. The Napa earthquake last summer was the first real test of the more modern components and was successful. But again, you're dependent on warning the populace after the earthquake has begun, which isn't useful for people near the epicenter.
Tsunami warning systems have been in place for many places for decades; whether people respond is a different story.
In terms of people preparedness, again, California is the leader in the US but there are drills in many places[3], though they're generally voluntary and totally ignored by most.
It takes measurable time for communities miles away from the epicentre to get hit, and in that time you could easily send a warning.
Many of the videos from the Japan tsunami showed people getting alerted well before the quake hit. All TV stations flipped over to a warning screen with information on the quake and a map of tsunami danger areas based on computed projections.
I can see how having the fault line directly under your city is a problem, but this "mega quake" is projected to originate off-shore.
I guess the US solution is to keep watching Twitter.
It's pretty baffling. Japan is the model for earthquake warning systems. Even a few seconds' warning could be invaluable if you are running a major datacenter. But apart from a tiny pilot program in Berkeley I'm not aware of any serious efforts in that direction.
For extra credit, figure out how to trigger the compression wave near the sensors the datacenter depends on to automatically fail masters over to another state.
Is there anything anyone can do to set up an alert for these sorts of things?
If these predictions are true, there's a good chance that the entirety of Silicon Valley could be utterly destroyed. You'd think people would take more of an interest in preventing that.