Earthquake triggers California's early warning app for the first time

By jove, it works!

California's earthquake early warning app, MyShake, sent out its first alert Tuesday notifying people nearby of a swiftly incoming 'quake. 

At around 10:30 a.m. local time, a magnitude 4.3 earthquake in the central coast-adjacent town of Cholame prompted the app to send warnings to over 40 people nearby who would be impacted by the shaking, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The idea of the app is that giving people even seconds of warning allows time to drop, cover, and hold on before the shaking starts. In the case of the Cholame quake, notifications were sent out to those affected people just 8.7 seconds before the earthquake hit.  Read more...