Use of Modern Communication Technologies during Earthquakes: How to Increase the Efficiency of Macroseismic Data Collection.

Currently, macroseismic data are mostly obtained through online questionnaires posted on the websites of regional and international seismological agencies. Generally, strong earthquakes lead to a large number of users attempting to access the sites, which often leads to server overloads, the disruption of normal access to seismological sites, and, as a result, a sharp decrease in the efficiency of collecting macroseismic data through online questionnaires. In such cases, the only way to make up for the lack of macroseismic data is to directly ask residents to share their observations and fill out an online questionnaire. The use of instant messaging apps seems to be the best way, because they provide wide coverage and high speeds. The efficiency of this method has been confirmed during two relatively strong earthquakes in the Baikal region (September 21, 2020, Mw = 5.6, and June 8, 2022, Mw = 5.2), which were accompanied by the website crashing. Sending requests to earthquake eyewitnesses via the Viber instant messaging app made it possible to increase the number of responses by 5–8 times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]