The National University’s Volcanology and Seismology Research Institute (OVSICORI) announced the start of a trial run to implement an earthquake early warning system in Costa Rica.

Marino Protti, seismologist of OVSICORI, explained that the system consists in the installation of sensors close to the sources of strong earthquakes, these will generate alerts when the movements begin. This same system has been implemented in Chile in the last two years.

The warning system is efficient for populations that are at a distance of 50 to 75 kilometers (31 to 47 miles) from the epicenter, generating a warning 30 to 40 seconds prior to the movement, “It doesn’t work for the area of the epicenter since the alert is triggered once the movement starts, and populations further than 75 kilometers would not feel an important movement or have consequences”, explained Protti.

This project has the financial support of the U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.S. Geological Survey.

The trial run involves the installation of 100 sensors in different areas of the country, some of them are: the Nicoya Peninsula, Osa, South Caribbean and the Central Valley. The alerts will be received in smart phones initially in key locations such as schools and Red Cross headquarters.

Earlier this week the Geology Faculty of the University of Costa Rica hosted the conference “Towards earthquake early warning in Central America”, with Ph.D. Frédérick Massin, professor of geology, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich.

The initial stage of this project will involve the training of professionals.