Citizens' smartphones unravel earthquake shaking in urban areas.
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Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 41152255.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-025-64543-3 and PMC identifier 12568940.
- Licence recorded as CC BY-NC-ND.
- Because redistribution is not established, this page shows the abstract only. Follow the links below for the full text.
Abstract
Seismic shaking maps (known as ShakeMaps) have become an essential tool for assessing the impact of a recent earthquake or for scenario studies of future events. The spatial resolution of ShakeMaps remains low, particularly in urban areas where spatial variations can have a major impact on damage due to varying population density. Smartphones, with their internal accelerometers and widespread use, help to increase the density of seismic recording precisely where the potential impact of the earthquake may be greatest. In this work, we use statistical spatial modelling to show that smartphone measurements collected by the Earthquake Network citizen science initiative allow us to map site amplification at high spatial resolution, generate high-resolution ShakeMaps, and improve existing ground motion models. We apply the method to the red zone of Campi Flegrei, Italy, a high volcanic and seismic risk area with around 500,000 inhabitants and characterised by a complex spatial pattern of site amplification.