Existing Technology

The majority of volcanic eruption alerts are sent out by human professionals.

This flowchart by the Japan Meteorological Agency shows an observation and information centre that uses human interaction. It also uses news broadcasting and emergency officials to warn residents of an eruption.

We expect our artificial intelligence idea to perform accurate checks in a much shorter time than human investigation. Our wearable/pendant device idea should be able to warn citizens from any location much quicker than these services.

• https://www.usgs.gov/programs/VHP/volcano-notifications-deliver-situational-information
• https://www.eskp.de/en/natural-hazards/volcanic-alert-systems-935705/
• https://www.data.jma.go.jp/vois/data/tokyo/STOCK/kaisetsu/English/level.html

In 2015, the Italian government received a warning about an eruption at Mount Etna in Sicily, two hours before the eruption. If it were not for the automated warning system, the eruption could have caused many casualties.

The 2019 white island eruption encouraged the development of early warning systems in New Zealand. This includes experimenting with machine learning algorithms which have shown promising results.

• https://www.preventionweb.net/news/italy-new-automated-volcano-warning-system-forecasts-imminent-eruptions
• https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2018JB015561?af=R
• https://www.preventionweb.net/news/new-zealands-white-island-likely-erupt-violently-again-new-alert-system-could-give-hours