Why do earthquakes disrupt cell phone reception?

Jesse Japak: 2

Charissa Bichsel: How would you know whether or not your dead relatives are in Hell? Did you judge them? Did you send them there? Maybe they accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior before it was too late. For that matter, you still have time to accept the free gift of salvation, too. I'm sure you secretly want to go to Heaven when you leave this world. All you have to do is accept the free gift. God bless everyone!

Eldridge Rieves: Hello, I am in Christchurch, and I experienced the 7.1 magnitude earthquake recently, which knocked out power, water for some and also messed up cellphone reception. There are several reasons why:- The cellphone towers overload with messages and calls from people trying to contact loved ones- Cellphone towers can be damaged- Cellphone towers might lose power, a local cellphone tower in Christchurch was running off a backup battery which was limited to a few hoursYou really do need to have a land line phone that! is not electronic-- a good old simple phone that requires no power in case you do lose that service. Cellphones have batteries, too-- you might have no power for over 48 hours if a big disaster strikes, and your phone might not last that long....Show more

Rodrigo Pezley: cell phone tower is on land

Sherrill Botting: cell phones use land base towers to beam information.

Lynn Hollars: Many good answers here

Donald Caravalho: Well, I think that there is a satellite in space, that transfers throughout the world, to "Towers" on land, if an earthquake were to take down a tower that supports your plan, you're "Screwed" lol

Shan Lanen: This is interesting, because it isn't a science answer at all, but rather, it is a political question. The government even admitted their protocol... After an earthquake, all telephone and cell phone service is shut down at the source. This is because after an earthquake, the first thing people do is to call someone. ! People call friends and family to say that they are safe and ! OK. Or people make calls to make sure their loved ones are good. Or they call up someone just to say, "i was in an earthquake!" Directly after an earthquake, affecting many many numbers of individuals, all these calls happen at once and all the phone lines are jammed, for say, actual emergencies related to the, in this case, earthquake: injuries, deaths, downed power lines, etc. This is similar to why After 9/11, the government forced us all to switch to digital. This way, after an emergency or catastrophe, they can flip 'one general switch', and all the phone lines are then free to be used by emergency personal, or they can 'turn off' the "digital", and in effect, everything is quiet....Show more

Stanton Valdivia: Need more info to answer

Stan Conley: Most cell phones are not satellite phones. Typically cell phones connect to cell towers (similar to a radio tower in idea). These cell towers would then connect to land-lines locally. The only reason I can th! ink that earthquakes might cause cell phone problems is that an earthquake might damage the towers or the lines.

Norma Marsalis: Cell phones use local radio 'cells'. They don't go directly to satelite.Earthquakes are much more likely to disrupt your land-line.If one was serious enough, it could knock out the local radio cell towers and disrupt your cell service.

Phil Kuarez: Is it possible that cell phone service can be disrupted do to the earth shaking and maybe throwing off the magnetic feild beetween the north pole and the South pole which could somehow have an effect on cellular service.