WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand, known as the “Shaky Isles” for the 14,000 earthquakes it averages a year, unveiled a 10-year project Wednesday to upgrade its nationwide system for monitoring quakes and volcanic eruptions.
Partly funded by the country’s Earthquake Commission, the 80 million New Zealand dollars ($38 million) Geonet system is designed to provide detailed monitoring of earth movements at more than 320 sites nationwide.
The first batch of equipment is already collecting higher quality seismic and ground movement data from around New Zealand and delivering it in real time to data centers on North Island.
New Zealand sits atop the moving edges of two of the tectonic plates making up the earth’s crust, making its land mass vulnerable to major geological deformity and movement.
