Chinese researchers build world-leading earthquake early warning system

On Monday night, Wang Tun had gone to bed earlier than usual as he was not feeling well, only to be woken up by a loud alarm sound in Chengdu, capital city of Southwest China's Sichuan Province. 

At 10:55 pm on Monday, a magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck Changning county, about 300 kilometers from Chengdu, killing at least 13 people. 

Before they felt the quake, notices and countdowns were broadcast to locals on loudspeakers, television screens and smart phones. 

However, not all of the residents knew what the alarm was, and were not even aware there was an earthquake warning system in their neighborhood. 

Wang was clear: there was going to be an earthquake. The alarm is part of an earthquake early warning (EEW) system developed by Wang and the Sichuan-based Institute of Care-life (ICL). 

Aerial photo taken on June 18, 2019 shows tents at a temporary shelter of Shuanghe Town High School in Changning County of Yibin City, southwest China's Sichuan Province. (Photo: Xinhua)

"11 years ago, about 70,000 people lost their lives in the Wenchuan earthquake. As someone from Sichuan, I felt I should do something for my hometown," Wang said, noting there was nothing in China's earthquake early warning field at that time, while Japan and Mexico had already established such systems. 

Compared with Japan's EEW system, Wang's boasts a quicker response time, zero false alarms and a larger coverage area.

Some people expressed doubt on China's social media that having a few dozen seconds' notice was of any use in escaping an earthquake. 

Research has found that being aware of an earthquake even three seconds before it hits can save 14 percent of casualties, and 20 seconds' warning can save 63 percent, Wang responded.

The earthquake early warning center at the Sichuan-based Institute of Care-life (ICL) (Photo: Courtesy of ICL)

A researcher at the University of Science and Technology of China said that even early warnings as short as one or two seconds in advance are vital for some pieces of major infrastructure, such as power plants, high speed railways and oil drilling platforms, as the automatic system in these places will allow the facilities to shut down in a safe manner after being triggered by the early warning system, so as to guarantee the safety of people and facilities.

China has been making great efforts to promote earthquake preparedness. The country aims to have the ability to quickly respond to earthquake intensity in some parts of China by 2020 and put the earthquake early warning services into use all over the country by 2023. 

Photo taken on June 17, 2019, shows an early quake warning appearing on the screen of a TV in Ya'an, Sichuan Province, alerting residents that seismic waves would arrive in 25 seconds. (Photo: China Daily)

Even though media has spoken highly of the pre-warning system and its pioneering technology, experts said there is still a lot to do in terms of training people to respond to and handle the pre-warnings. 

(Produced by Chen Lidan & Liang Peiyu; Story originally from Global Times, written by Zhang Dan & Li Lei)