@INGVterremoti: Tweeting the Automatic Detection of Earthquakes

Abstract:

The use of social media is emerging as a powerful tool for
disseminating trusted information about earthquakes. Since 2009, the
Twitter account @INGVterremoti provides constant and timely details
about M2+ seismic events detected by the Italian National Seismic
Network, directly connected with the seismologists on duty at Istituto
Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV). After the 2012 seismic
sequence, the account has been awarded by a national prize as the
"most useful Twitter account". Currently, it updates more than 110,000
followers (one the first 50 Italian Twitter accounts for number of
followers). Nevertheless, since it provides only the manual revision
of seismic parameters, the timing (approximately between 10 and 20
minutes after an event) has started to be under evaluation.
Undeniably, mobile internet, social network sites and Twitter in particular
require a more rapid and "real-time" reaction.
During the last 18 months, INGV tested the tweeting of the automatic
detection of M3+ earthquakes, obtaining results reliable enough to be
released openly 1 or 2 minutes after a seismic event. During the summer
of 2014, INGV, with the collaboration of CORIS (Department of
Communication and Social Research, Sapienza University of Rome),
involved the followers of @INGVterremoti and citizens, carrying out a
quali-quantitative study (through in-depth interviews and a web
survey) in order to evaluate the best format to deliver such
information. In this presentation we will illustrate the results of the reliability test and the
analysis of the survey.