@INGVterremoti: Tweeting the Automatic Detection of Earthquakes

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