In order to provide early notification of the occurrence of strong earthquakes to members of the public, the Hong Kong Observatory launches a trial version of Quick Earthquake Messages on Twitter on March 23 (Wednesday). This would include notification messages on worldwide earthquakes of magnitude 6.0 or above as analyzed by the Observatory.

These Twitter earthquake messages are compiled and posted by the Observatory's computer systems automatically without human intervention so as to expedite information release. For certain events, Observatory personnel may make use of subsequent information to compile and issue earthquake press releases with more detailed information. Information given in such press releases should supersede those given in the tweets if there are deviations.

As locally felt earthquakes of any magnitude may be of interest to the public, the Observatory will also disseminate manually prepared messages on locally felt earthquakes through Twitter as quickly as possible.