New Zealand’s Earthquake Commission (EQC) has launched research into the development of an earthquake early warning system.

Countries like Japan, Mexico and Taiwan have systems giving warnings from seconds to up to two minutes that strong earthquake shaking is about to strike.

EQC-funded researchers are carrying out a survey to find out how New Zealanders would respond to such a warning, and how they think it should work.

“For instance, what is the minimum strength of shaking would they want to be warned about and how would they like to receive the warning,” lead researcher Julia Becker said.

Dr Becker’s team has been talking to emergency managers in hospitals, road and rail transport, education and other sectors to see how they would use an early warning system in their operations.

“We know for instance in Japan that train drivers slow down and surgeons make patients safe during an operation once they receive a warning,” she said.

“The team’s research will indicate what some benefits of an early warning system would be for the community.

“There will no doubt be other studies on the economic and engineering aspects before an early warning system is seriously considered.”

EQC’s Director of Resilience Research Dr Hugh Cowan says the research is unique in that the starting point is public consultation.

“This research is an excellent first step in understanding whether an earthquake early warning system would be useful for New Zealand,” he said.

“When systems such as this are developed, they often start with the engineering side of things whereas this project puts people first.”

Dr Becker says early warning systems can work because earthquakes send out two kinds of waves – P-waves and S-waves.

“It is similar to lightning and thunder. When the electrical discharge happens, you first see the lightning that travels really fast, and you hear the thunder later depending on how far away you are.

“With an earthquake, the P-waves travel very fast and are picked up by sensors first, automatically sending an alert to locations further away warning them to expect strong earthquake shaking.

“The S-waves that cause the shaking and damage travel more slowly, so unless you’re at the centre of the earthquake, you can get a warning of what is coming.”

Click here to respond to the survey before April 30.