Scientists have made a breakthrough in predicting earthquakes. On Feb. 12, a new app, which has the capacity to track tremors, was launched. The app uses sophisticated smartphone sensors to track these tremors.

The app called MyShake is programmed to link all of its users- essentially creating a giant web of earthquake warning system. The app records earthquake type rumblings and then correlate it with the total number of users in a specific location. By doing so, the app can eventually provide an accurate countdown to the exact time when the earthquake will occur.

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The app, created by the University of California in Berkeley, can provide vital early warnings of a possible earthquake to a specific location even without the use of sophistication seismological instruments.

Director of Berkeley Seismological Laboratory and leader of the MyShake project Richard Allen told Reuters, however, that "MyShake cannot replace traditional seismic networks like those run by the U.S. Geological Survey."

"But we think MyShake can make earthquake early warning faster and more accurate in areas that have a traditional seismic network, and can provide life-saving early warning in countries that have no seismic network," Allen added.

Allen pointed that developing countries like Pakistan, Iran, Nepal, Turkmenistan and Peru lack or have poor ground-based seismic networks.

The algorithm behind MyShake was written by a handful of Silicon Valley programmers. For most of its major functions, the app relies on a smartphone sensor known as the accelerometer - the same sensor that detects the smartphone's orientation.

Most of these smartphone accelerometers can only record earthquakes above Magnitude 5 within 10 kilometers. Due to this lack of sensitivity, MyShake app relies on the ubiquity of smartphones.

MyShake developers claim that 300 smartphones running the MyShake app within a 110-km square is enough to accurately estimate an earthquake's location, origin time and magnitude.

MyShake is currently available on the Android operating system. However, developers are still working on to create an iOS version of the app.

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