Jenlogix + Earthquake Early Warning Alarms

The first of a number of Palert Seismic Switches/Earthquake Early Warning Alarms has been deployed in the Wellington Region to protect vital water supplies in the event of a major earthquake and has been installed by Jenlogix. The system has already responded to recent Earthquakes greater than 5 centred near Palmerston North and Masterton, but felt in Wellington.

The system was developed in Taiwan to provide early warning at low cost. It has already provided over 30 seconds warning to Taipei (capital city) for significant earthquakes in Taiwan that occurred over 180KM away from the city. The Taiwan authorities realised after the devastating 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake that it was crucial to seek solutions through scientific research and have instigated the Earthquake Early Warning System (EEWS,) as one of the most promising tools for alleviating threats caused by large earthquakes.

Currently, in Taiwan, when an earthquake occurs, earthquake epicentre information can be determined within 20 s with a reasonable certainty. To detect the occurrence of an earthquake, each individual Palert device uses an onsite Pd approach. Test results based on the 27 March 2013 Nantou ML 6.1 earthquake, showed that most stations displayed a 1–2 s lead time as compared with the traditional method using PGA as a threshold in regions close to the epicentre. Using a dense array of stations, the Palert network can provide a real-time shaking map for both EEW and rapid reporting applications in under 2 minutes
Because of its low cost, the Palert device has huge commercial potential. The unit can be used as a seismic switch in standalone mode for new protection or to augment existing safety. Onsite or regional EEWS can be established for relatively little expense, plus Palert sensors can be readily added to an existing seismic network in order to increase the density of the network. Thus far, Palert devices have been installed in China, Indonesia, Mexico, Taiwan and now New Zealand. To test the feasibility of providing EEW to New Delhi, India, a pilot Palert network has been installed near the Himalayan region. Results from the Palert network in Taiwan are encouraging for the further utilization of EEWS in other countries.
Palert is an advanced earthquake P wave alarm detector system from Sanlien in Taiwan and represented by Jenlogix in Oceania. It uses embedded Pd technology developed by Prof. Yih-Min Wu from National Taiwan University who has published many articles on this subject. With over 500 sold in Taiwan alone, it has proven successful and is now supported by the Taiwanese Government Note that Taiwan has the same number of earthquakes as New Zealand.

Jenlogix source standard components and embedded technology, allowing them to support a wide range of systems and their capability extends through the complete end-to-end processing cycle, from data Capture, Communication, Processing and Display of mission-critical information, which now includes the EEWS.

For more information on Jenlogix please go to http://www.jenlogix.co.nz .