Earthquake Warning System Installed At Haryana Govt’s Building

The new Secretariat in Haryana has become the only building in India to have an Earthquake Warning System installed onsite.

• The ‘Early Earthquake Warning and Security System’ has been installed by Terra Techcom free of cost. Around 26 countries in the world have this technology already. This system can save lives by giving alert of a future earthquake well ahead of time.

Early Earthquake Warning and Security System

• Terra Techcom collaborated with Secretary Electronics GmbH, Germany for the project.
• This system is not only a seismic switch for on site early warning but capable of releasing early warning of an earthquake.
• The utility of the device was proven by grounding the elevators of the building and by sounding alarm at every floor of the seven-storey building.
• The system can shut down the elevators, electricity, water supply and run back-up programmes as soon as the alarm goes off, thus preventing the potential damage that fire, electricity or other variables can.
• The system uses :
  • A master and a submaster device which prevents false alarms
  • A six-horn siren at the terrace with a 6-km range

The Principle Behind The System:

• It works on the principle of primary and secondary waves of an earthquake.
• The primary waves, which many animals can detect, are the initial vertical movements beneath the earth that can neither be felt by human beings nor can they cause any damage
• The primary waves are soon followed by secondary waves that shake the earth horizontally and have the potential to cause damage, which is known to us as an earthquake.
• The system detects intensity of the primary waves and gives out an alarm only when the intensity of the following secondary waves is high enough to potentially cause damage
• This also means that the time between the alarm and the actual earthquake could vary from two seconds to 30 seconds

CHALLENGES OF INSTALLATION:

• The price for one such system could be around Rs 30 lakh, excluding the taxes and installation costs
• Training of people to know what the alarm means and what they are supposed to do once the alarm goes off, especially when only a few seconds would be at the disposal