Tomorrow marks 15 years since the 4 Sept 2010 earthquake that was to be a warning of the deadly and devastating 22 Feb 2011 earthquake. Changing hundreds of thousands of lives in a moment, with impacts rippling around the globe, from the tragedy of those lost in the event, to the warnings, discoveries, and research communicated globally since. The central Christchurch city of today looks completely different to that of 15 years ago, having since undertaken a city-wide rebuild that moves closer to completion with the opening of the new city stadium and metro sport complexes in 2026. Many still await a final outcome for the iconic Christ Church Cathedral as this city landmark struggles to be reinstated.
At Canterbury Seismic this is date serves to remind that earthquakes are always happening in New Zealand and are a defining element of living here. Whether considered as a pre-event or isolated event, all the earthquakes are a result of where we are on earth and the tectonic forces that create the country. Earthquakes have driven innovation in New Zealand like base isolation for civil engineering, isolation devices for home protection, societal response mechanisms, and technical innovations like our own Sentinel. New Zealand continues to be a bright spot of world-leading innovation in the face of this stark reality of thousands of earthquakes per year, including more than 200 felt events, many of which are significant.
Within this context we have developed a new technology for the advancement of the earthquake protection technologies offered by Canterbury Seismic, our own earthquake early warning (EEW) technology, coming to subscribers of Sentinel in 2026 for professional and industrial applications. Leveraging our nationwide Sentinel earthquake sensor network, our EEW has been running in a realtime beta-testing environment for the past two years, and is now ready for wider adoption. Results from simulations of historical events show for an event like the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake that created havoc in Wellington, our technology could have issued Wellington with 60 seconds of advanced notice to peak shaking and Christchurch with 40 seconds. A lot can be automated and completed with a few 10's of seconds to prepare for incoming shaking, such as pausing operating equipment, setting to a protected state, or taking other mitigations. You can expect to hear more from us about this technology as we bring subscribers onboard and help the country get ready for the next damaging event. Sentinel by Canterbury Seismic is expanding its service to offer building and city-wide EEW tools to reduce the impact of incoming damaging earthquake shaking - tools that provide vital resilience against an AF8, Hikurangi Subduction Zone, or other local fault ruptures that puts New Zealanders at risk every day. Exciting times ahead for our passionate team!
These next few days we are engaging with researchers at the QuakeCoRE 2025 Annual Meeting #QCAM25 in Dunedin on topics including our new EEW. More details will come in the following weeks as we prepare EEW for rollout in 2026 - if you're interested to know more reach out at the contact links provided.
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