China has successfully completed its National Earthquake Early Warning Project, unveiling the world’s largest earthquake early warning network, the China Earthquake Administration (CEA) announced on Friday.
The project involves 15,899 monitoring stations across the country to provide early warnings and rapid earthquake intensity reports to the public, said Yin Chaomin, vice head of the administration, at a press conference.
Early warnings from the project will reach the public via TV, IPTV, mobile apps such as WeChat and Alipay, and loudspeakers in villages.
The system uses a dense network of seismic monitoring stations to issue alerts before destructive seismic waves arrive, taking advantage of the fact that seismic waves travel much slower than electromagnetic waves. This allows the public to take precautionary measures to reduce casualties, receiving warnings seconds to tens of seconds before seismic waves hit.
Yin stated that the project has achieved significant breakthroughs in core technologies for earthquake early warning and rapid intensity reporting, matching international advanced standards. In critical zones, including north China and southeast coastal areas, the system can issue early warning signals within seconds of an earthquake and report intensity within minutes.
The network can detect earthquakes with magnitudes of 2.5 or above in most parts of the country, 2.0 or above in eastern regions, and 1.0 or above in densely populated areas like the capital circle and the Yangtze River Delta.
The project has been integrated with various industries, including railways, pipelines, power grids, nuclear power, and natural gas.
China, a country with frequent earthquakes, reported 18 earthquakes with a magnitude of 5 or above in 2023, 11 of which occurred on the mainland, including two with magnitudes greater than 6.