Fault-finding to be made easier by Phivolcs with app

ARE YOU a fault finder? Soon there will be an app for you.

For National Science and Technology Week—to be celebrated from July 25 to 29—the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) will roll out two online applications, one of which could be used to find earthquake fault lines in any part of the country.

Called the Phivolcs FaultFinder, the app would give the user the distance of active faults relative to the user’s location or a specified location.

Phivolcs Director Renato Solidum Jr., in a press conference on the science and technology week celebration, said the app would be useful for land-use planning, risk assessment and disaster reduction awareness.

“It will provide easy access and transparency. When people buy lots in a subdivision, they should know what dangers there are. And lot sellers should also disclose that. With this tool, nobody will get fooled anymore,” Solidum said.

The app will utilize base maps from the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority, Google and OpenStreets, although Solidum said it was still best to get official distance estimates of fault lines from Phivolcs itself.

The Phivolcs FaultFinder is a collaboration between Phivolcs and the Geological Survey of Japan.

Another coming application, the Phivolcs Local Active Volcanoes Archive, will provide users with data on the Philippines’ active volcanoes, including eruptions.

The app would also be geared for use by other countries, so “they can understand similar volcanoes in their respective countries which have not yet erupted,” Solidum said. TVJ