"It enables the fire departments, ambulance and health services to be alerted," he added.

Allen has developed a system, called , that sends out alerts to cell phones or computers to anyone subscribing, up to 10 seconds before a tremor hits. The experimental system is bring trialed at the California Seismic Network (CISN).

To refine ElarmS, Allen is tapping US$120,000 a year from the U.S. Geological Survey -- a lot less than funds available in Europe or Japan.

Allen's network has only 285 sensors, put in place in collaboration with CISN. By comparison, Japan has invested $35 million in a warning system comprising 1,000 sensors.

With traditional systems, it takes about five minutes to locate an earthquake's epicenter and evaluate its magnitude. Early warning systems, sending out alerts seconds before an earthquake hits, can give a slight but fundamentally important edge to authorities and local inhabitants.