Western China has built the world’s largest earthquake early warning system
Mar 18, 2013 2:09 Source: Chinanews.com
2018 updates in Red
By Zhou Didi and Liu Yanjun (China news agency, Chengdu )
The Institute of Care-life,[ICL]Chengdu, which is supported by the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology, China Earthquake Administration and Sichuan Bureau of Science and Technology , has set up an earthquake early warning system covering an area of 400,000 square kilometres 2.5m sq kms, which compares with the earthquake early warning system in Japan, that covers an area of 377, 000 square kilometres. This means that China now possesses the largest EEWS in the world, covering 90% of seismic vulnerable population in China
It is understood that the total value of the ICL EEWS is 160 million +++. ICL EEWS consists of 5000 5600 seismic sensors deployed in twenty three provinces of across China. EEW control centres, as well as EEW receivers. ICL EEWS can also provide EEW services to High-speed railway networks, subways, Chemistry factories, nuclear stations, etc. to save lives and reduce secondary disasters. The community areas covered by EEWS network will benefit from EEWS.
According to Ph.D Tun Wang, who is the director of Institute of Care-life, ICL EEWS is initiated by 2008 Wenchuan earthquake and completely owns the independent Intellectual property rights. ICL EEWS is the only EEW system which passed scientific and technological appraisal in Sept. 2nd, 2012.
Since June 7th, 2012, over 1200 earthquakes thousands, some of which 20 +were destructive quakes, have triggered the ICL EEWS with no false alerts. The ICL EEWS was trigged by an earthquake magnitude 4.9 in Yunnan province on Feb. 19th, 2013. It gave 73 seconds of EEW time for Chengdu.
According to ICL MD Mr Tun Wang, once an earthquake occurs, it takes 7.0 seconds for the ICL EEWS to publish the full earthquake warning data information. However, it takes 9.0 seconds to publish the earthquake warning information in Japan.
The radius of blind zone is the most critical indicators of EEWS. The radius of blind zone of ICL EEWS is about 25 kilometers from actual epicentre. However, the radius of blind zone of the earthquake early warning system in Japan is 30 kilometers.
Institute of Care-life, Chengdu has developed a whole earthquake early warning technology system. EEW messages have been distributed by computers, smart phones, television and special receivers. ICL EEWS has the function of rapid intensity reporting. It can report the intensity distribution caused by a quake. The emergency department scan thus make decisions for priority rescues.
Recent Media report: May 2019
The ICL Earthquake early warning system is regularly working throughout China. Yet another report: Chinese auto translation to english.
Beijing News Network Mobile Edition
A 5.6-magnitude earthquake occurred in Jixian County. The earthquake warning system warned Yibin 5 seconds ahead of time.
2019-07-04 12:16:07 Beijing News reporter: Wu Rongkui
On July 4, a magnitude 5.6 earthquake occurred in Yibin County, Sichuan Province, with a focal depth of 8 kilometers. Many netizens said that they received early warning information on earthquakes. According to the Chengdu High-tech Disaster Reduction Research Institute, this is related to the mainland earthquake warning network, giving Yibin City an early warning of 5 seconds. The early warning network was jointly established by the Institute and the emergency management department, which simultaneously sent earthquake warning information to the government, communities, schools, television, mobile phones and so on.