Friday was devastating for Japan. The earthquake alone was powerful (8.9), but the 10m high tsunamis swept everything away. In the light of recent events, I decided to look into the Japanese earthquake early warning system. The JMA (Japan Meteorological Agency) launched the
earthquake early warning system in 2007. After a P wave of an earthquake is sensed by a sesmograph the information about the location and strength of the earthquake is distributed through mass and addressable notification media within seconds. This system enables people to take precausionary action before first earthquake waves reach them. It still maybe only seconds and there are still
limitations with the system as data is gathered and processed within seconds, but nevertheless it helps save lives.
As tsunamis are an even bigger threat to islands and coastal regions all around the Pacific, also JMA launched a tsunami early warning system, which functions in nearly similar to the earthquake warning system. The system was further developed after the Christmas tsunami disaster in 2004. Now the system helps alarm people all around the Pacific coast. Having had actual experiences with earthquakes in Japan, I know how to appreciate such information systems. I remember my first bigger earthquake in my 1 year stay in the land of the rising sun. It wasn’t a severely strong earthquake (5) and I didn’t realise it was an earthquake at first. I assumed the wind was blowing so hard, that my room swung like a tree house. (However it isn’t usual for a whole 4 floor building to swing like a tree house, is it?) After receiving a phone call from my Slovene friend half in panic instructing me to open the iron door of my room before they get stuck and to turn on the TV for further information, I realised that maybe we are having something more than ordinary wind. In the same moment as I turned on the TV, the first images from public transport surveillance cameras were showing the epicentre, the caused damage and tsunami alerts. That really is a fast information flow. Obviously it would be even better to fully avoid human casualties with a system that would enable earthquake and tsunami information even earlier, but I sincerely doubt if that is possible due to the nature of the disasters.
Friday was devastating for Japan. The earthquake alone was powerful (8.9), but the 10m high tsunamis swept everything away. In the light of recent events, I decided to look into the Japanese earthquake early warning system. The JMA (Japan Meteorological Agency) launched the earthquake early warning system in 2007. After a P wave of an earthquake is sensed by a sesmograph the information about the location and strength of the earthquake is distributed through mass and addressable notification media within seconds. This system enables people to take precausionary action before first earthquake waves reach them. It still maybe only seconds and there are still limitations with the system as data is gathered and processed within seconds, but nevertheless it helps save lives. 
As tsunamis are an even bigger threat to islands and coastal regions all around the Pacific, also JMA launched a tsunami early warning system, which functions in nearly similar to the earthquake warning system. The system was further developed after the Christmas tsunami disaster in 2004. Now the system helps alarm people all around the Pacific coast. Having had actual experiences with earthquakes in Japan, I know how to appreciate such information systems. I remember my first bigger earthquake in my 1 year stay in the land of the rising sun. It wasn’t a severely strong earthquake (5) and I didn’t realise it was an earthquake at first. I assumed the wind was blowing so hard, that my room swung like a tree house. (However it isn’t usual for a whole 4 floor building to swing like a tree house, is it?) After receiving a phone call from my Slovene friend half in panic instructing me to open the iron door of my room before they get stuck and to turn on the TV for further information, I realised that maybe we are having something more than ordinary wind. In the same moment as I turned on the TV, the first images from public transport surveillance cameras were showing the epicentre, the caused damage and tsunami alerts. That really is a fast information flow. Obviously it would be even better to fully avoid human casualties with a system that would enable earthquake and tsunami information even earlier, but I sincerely doubt if that is possible due to the nature of the disasters.
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