People who want to study earthquakes will keep a distance and model and measure remotely.

Hee hee, I completely missed that implication of the analogy.

There really should be an "earthquake chasers" reality show if there isn't already. Like, they get a signal from that early warning system in the U.S., the countdown starts and then reaches zero by the time they jump in their van.

The rest of the episode would be counting the seconds as they hurry toward their destination, only to arrive upset that yet again they missed it by only a few tens of thousands of seconds.