GeoNet Rapid - Why is it different?

GeoNet Rapid has been up and running for a few months now so i thought i would go over a few things, the first is:

Quake history:

SeisComP3 is fast as it locates the earthquakes automatically (no humans needed).  As soon as it has enough data it is able to post a first location on GeoNet rapid, if you look at the pic above you can see the first location was posted 42seconds after the actual earthquake. 

As more data arrives, from more distant stations, the system refines the location (up to 4 minutes in the pic above)  and finally finishes when the last data has arrived (10min on the pic). This delay is caused by the time it takes from the earthquake P wave to travel to the stations - eg if there was an earthquake at Stewart Island, it would take around seven minutes for the earthquake wave to travel and be picked up by our sensors at Cape Reinga (top of the North Island). The very last change comes later on when one of our duty seismologists looks at the event.

Status/ quality:

As the event changes you will notice both the 'status' and 'quality' change along with it.  The status lets you know if the solution has been located 'automatically' or 'reviewed' by a human   - see figure B in the pic below.  the Quality changes as more information comes into the system - with few stations the solution has 'caution', many stations has 'good' and finally 'best' when a human has reviewed it - see figure A in the pic below.

Descriptions found by hovering over the ? on the website.

We have also added a keyword / colour coding system to the earthquake intensity so you can easily tell if an earthquake was damaging or unnoticeable - see figure C in the pic above.

So why is it different to www.geonet.org.nz?

 

Yes the earthquake locations on GeoNet Rapid will be slightly different to those on www.geonet.org.nz The main reason for this is that SeisComP3 uses a three dimensional velocity model, whereas www.geonet.org.nz uses a one dimensional model.

The three dimensional data model uses a lot of data collected by the GeoNet project as well as many other research projects in NZ. By using this model we are really improving the way we located earthquakes.

 Next....

GeoNet Rapid will be in full production by late September 2012, and will bring with it a whole new look to the GeoNet website and information, some exciting things to come!

PS: The official GeoNet app for your smartphones can be downloaded here for  Android  and the iPhone/Pad app will be available next month! Is available now! 
  

Have an iPhone or iPad?

Well the GeoNet app is nearly ready, and here is a sneak peak.




The app can be in your hot hands next month!

Myth Busting!

Over my time here at GeoNet there have been various hazards come and go, and with them come the various myths/legends and some weird theories.

So I've decided to do a 'Monday Myth Buster' series on our  Facebook and Twitter pages, to clarify some of these up, and you might get a laugh or two out of them!

Today we start with 'Earthquake Weather'. Now this belief dates back to the 4th Century where the famous Greek Aristotle said that earthquakes were caused by winds trapped in underground caves. Small quakes were thought to have been caused by air pushing on the cave roofs, and large ones by the air breaking the surface. This led to the belief in earthquake weather, if  a large amount of air was trapped underground, the weather would be hot and calm before an earthquake

As cool as this theory sounds, its just isn't true.  Earthquakes begin below the grounds surface, where the weather is too far away to have any effect. And statistics have shown that earthquakes occur in about the same numbers in wet / dry / cold and hot conditions.