Citizen scientists could be the key to early earthquake warning system

By Kate Green

Scientists are calling on the public to become citizen seismologists to test a low-cost early earthquake warning system in the community.

Led by the Joint Centre for Disaster Research at Massey University and co-funded by the university and The Earthquake Commission (EQC), the scientists will trial a network of the sensors installed in community-owned buildings.

There is currently no early earthquake warning system in New Zealand, and this project hoped to build on existing systems like Geonet, which provided information after quakes occurred.

Lead researcher Raj Prasanna, from Massey University, said the project was still in the feasibility study stage, but they had been trialling several low-cost seismometers in the lab.

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Prasanna’s team had tested a number of off-the-shelf, low-cost sensors in the laboratory, and hoped to start installing approximately 20-25 of the sensors mid-year for field trials.

Once installed, the sensors would be connected by the internet and, if damaged, would ideally automatically adapt to reconnect with remaining sensors if power was still available.

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“Christchurch is important because they have already gone through the earthquake experience.”