A survey of more than 3000 New Zealanders has found 97% would welcome an earthquake early warning system to allow them to take some sort of action to keep themselves safe.

Japan has had an earthquake early warning system since 2007, and New Zealanders have welcomed the idea of a similar scheme so they can be mentally prepared, as well as “drop, cover and hold” in the moments before major shaking occurs, the Earthquake Commission-funded survey says.

The EQC’s head of Resilience Strategy and Research, Dr Jo Horrocks, says the warning systems can be expensive and the research project is useful to see how New Zealand would benefit from such a large investment.

The warning system utilises two types of waves created by an earthquake. P-waves, which travel very fast, are picked up by the seismographs before the actual shaking starts, computing an earthquake’s location and size and rapidly sending out expected shaking strength and arrival time.

The S-waves that cause shaking and damage travel more slowly, enabling a warning period of a few seconds up to two minutes, depending on how close a person is to the epicentre.