China has successfully completed its National Earthquake Early Warning Project, revealing the world’s largest earthquake early warning network, the China Earthquake Administration (CEA) announced on Friday.
The initiative, which will install 15,899 monitoring stations around the country, will provide the public with earthquake early warning and rapid earthquake intensity reporting services, according to Yin Chaomin, vice head of the administration, who spoke at a press conference.
Earlier warnings made by the initiative can be distributed to the public via TV, IPTV, mobile APPs such as WeChat and Alipay, and village loudspeakers, according to Yin.
Earthquake early warning is based on a dense network of seismic monitoring stations that send notifications before catastrophic seismic waves arrive. It takes advantage of the fact that seismic waves are much slower than electromagnetic waves.
The people can take precautions to reduce casualties after obtaining warnings a few seconds to tens of seconds before the seismic waves arrive.
According to Yin, the initiative resulted in substantial improvements in the key technologies of earthquake early warning and rapid intensity reporting, with total system performance comparable to international advanced standards.
The initiative can send out early warning signals within seconds of an earthquake in five vital zones, including northern China and southeast China’s coast. It may also report the severity of any earthquake that strikes any portion of China within minutes.
The project can detect earthquakes of a magnitude of 2.5 or higher in most sections of the country. In the eastern parts, it can detect earthquakes with a magnitude of 2.0 or higher. In densely populated areas such as the capital circle and the Yangtze River Delta, the initiative will detect any earthquake with a magnitude of 1.0 or more.
According to Yin, the project is integrated with businesses such as railways, pipelines, electricity grids, nuclear power, and natural gas.
China is a country with frequent earthquakes. In 2023, the country reported 18 earthquakes of magnitude 5 or higher. Of these, 11 happened in the Chinese mainland, including two with magnitudes greater than 6.
