Developing a national earthquake early warning system in Canada: Considerations for the network layout

Abstract:

Earthquake Early Warning Systems (EEWS) have already been successfully implemented in several regions around the world where seismicity poses a risk to populations and infrastructure. Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) is designing a national EEWS to protect parts of Canada where the seismic risk is high, including western and southeastern Canada. The proposed locations of stations for the EEWS were selected based on the current capacities of EEWS systems, the earthquake distribution in Canada and surrounding regions, and the areas where protective actions may prove useful. The goal was to achieve most of the performance of a 20-km spaced grid of stations across Canada, roughly 23,500 sensors, with far fewer stations. The proposed and grid networks were then tested against a synthetic earthquake catalog, designed to reflect 10,000 years of seismicity based on the 2015 Canadian national seismic hazard model. The test indicates the proposed network of about 350 stations is capable of providing meaningful warnings to most populated locations that are at risk of damaging earthquake shaking. It also can evaluate where additional stations may provide more benefits for the national EEWS.