Automated control systems could be wired into the warning system, stopping trains, shutting industrial production lines or warning workers close to dangerous machinery.

Buildings could be designed to change their properties in seconds. For example, they might use a fluid circulating throughout the building that, in response to an electric current, almost instantly makes the building more rigid or more flexible depending on the ground motion caused by the quake.

The general population might not respond quickly to an earthquake alarm that only goes off every few decades, but a system might work well in schools. Like fire drills, quake-alarm drills would train students to dive under desks quickly to avoid falling debris.

Firefighters could move equipment from fire stations with enough warning, preventing them from being damaged or immobilized if the building collapsed.