Scientists have developed an app that crowdsources ground-shaking information from smartphones to detect earthquakes and eventually warns users of impending jolts from nearby quakes.

According to the scientists at UC Berkley, "The app runs 'silently' in the background on your phone using very little power — just like the step-tracking fitness apps. When the shaking fits the vibrational profile of an earthquake, the app sends the anonymous information to our central system that confirms the location and magnitude of the quake."

Since it was first released in English in February this year, more than 170,000 people have downloaded the app from around the world , and on any given day 11,000 phones provide data to the system.

Once enough people are using the app and the bugs are worked out, UC Berkeley seismologists plan to use the data to warn people miles from ground zero that shaking is rumbling their way.