Scientists Follow Earthquakes on Twitter

Source: LiveScience.com

Scientists at the United States Geological Survey (USGS) recently noticed that users of the micro-blogging service in seismically active areas of the world were quick to note and report any temblors and movements of the Earth that they felt.

And not only were Twitterers quick to note quakes in 140 characters or fewer, "there were reports that people on Twitter were beating the USGS" at getting out alerts of earthquake activity, said USGS scientist Paul Earle.

Earle said that quake tweets haven't contributed much in the way of registering the degree of shaking or in well-monitored areas, but could help get out alerts in areas around the world that are less well-monitored or during earthquakes that are minor but felt over a wide area.

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