Earthquake Early Warning Systems

Earthquakes pose significant and potentially catastrophic risk to urban areas located near major active fault lines and offshore subduction zones.  Earthquake early warning systems (EEW) have been deployed in some large cities in seismically active zones and many agencies are intensely researching and testing earthquake early warning system for use in large cities.  Some systems deployed in Mexico, Japan and Taiwan can detect the beginning of an earthquake.  Scientists estimate that EEW systems could potentially deliver up to a minute of warning before shaking from a large distant earthquake reaches an urban area, giving hospitals, utility companies, transportation providers and emergency crew time to make life saving decisions.