GeoNet is an organization which monitors earthquakes, volcanoes, large landslides and tsunamis in NZ. NZ is a country which experiences many natural hazards. We are called “the shaky isles”. In the last 15 years, since the beginning of GeoNet, there have been 314,000 earthquakes, which is about 57 every day but most of these were so small we did not feel them. However, 1,100 were over 5.0 magnitude.
Many people living in Canterbury became very aware of GeoNet after the earthquakes in 2010 and 2011. There have been a quarter of a million downloads of their app in the last 3 years, and 16,000 hits per second on their website after an earthquake. When local people feel an earthquake, they make a guess about the size then check with GeoNet which can give information almost immediately. We are lucky that the information is available to the public.
The growth of GeoNet in these 15 years has been amazing because of improvements in technology with funding from EQC. Before 2001, there were some instruments on farms so scientists had to phone the farmers for information. After a big earthquake in the Southern Alps in the 1990s, it took 3 months for scientists to put together a map showing the size of earthquakes in the area. Now GeoNet can receive that information almost immediately. They have 600 instruments around the country to monitor seismic activity. Some of these are in very remote locations where nobody lives and where the weather is quite severe. Today, GeoNet leads the world in speed and accuracy of information.
The information from GeoNet has been very useful for construction engineers, planners of underground water and sewerage systems and for city planners. GeoNet has also educated many of us about earthquakes.
In the future, GeoNet wants to improve early warning systems, and to receive more information from the public about the impact of geological events on their property and their lives.
Vocabulary
• monitor (v) – check closely
• hazards (n) – dangers
• isles (n) – islands
• magnitude (n) – size on the Richter scale
• become aware (v + adj) – start to notice
• funding (n) – money
• EQC – Earthquake Commission, a government organisation
• seismic (adj) – relating to earthquakes and ground shaking
• remote (adj) – far away
• impact (n) – effects on us