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Is a New Zealand earthquake early-warning system possible?

Source(s): Otago Daily Times, Allied Press Limited
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Scientists say it's not beyond the realms of possibility that New Zealand could have a sophisticated earthquake early warning (EEW) system - alerting people seconds before a big disaster hits. But creating an EEW system - which works by detecting P-waves emitted by quakes before shaking starts, potentially giving early notice of a coming tsunami - would require a huge technology upgrade to GeoNet's current capability.

Japan is the only country to have an operational EEW system; the US is in the process of building a $54 million network in California. Japan's arrangement, which cost more than $1 billion to build, includes an automatic earthquake location system based on hundreds of seismographs, along with pre-existing models of what tsunamis could be caused by 100,000 different earthquakes at 10,000 locations around their coastline.

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Hazards Earthquake Tsunami
Themes Early warning
Country and region Japan New Zealand
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