Sentinel Blog

At 09:30am Thursday October 28th, organisations across New Zealand will run preparedness and response drills for earthquake and tsunami. ShakeOut takes place  to remind people of the right action to take during an earthquake. Drop, Cover and Hold. You can also practise a tsunami hīkoi (evacuation) if you're in a coastal area.

M7.1 earthquake, off the east coast of the North Island.  Friday, March 5 2021 at 02:27 am

A milestone reminder of the importance of having a plan

Natural disasters – like earthquakes, floods or pandemics – can have massive, sometimes disastrous, impacts on businesses. For example, when the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes struck Canterbury, we weren't as ready as we should have been, and the impact was devastating. It begs the question: if the use of data and technology had been more widespread at the time, would it have lessened that impact?

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New Zealand isn't called 'the shaky isles' for nothing. Earthquakes are a fact of life here; the past decade has seen significant seismic activity and the science tells us to expect more in the future. We can't prevent the quakes, but we can be prepared for them and with Sentinel, we have the technology to help us make smart, fast decisions after they’ve occurred.

When an earthquake strikes, the go-to resource for most New Zealanders is GeoNet. Following an event, people quickly jump onto the site to review the magnitude and the intensity of the quake or “reported shaking”.

At Sentinel, we know that measured ground shaking across a city or region is highly variable. Using “Magnitude plus distance” as a crude estimate of damage likelihood is unreliable, uncertain and potentially dangerous. An earthquake earlier this week provided a graphic demonstration.

At 7:53am on Monday, May 25, a 5.8 magnitude earthquake shook Wellington - even rattling the Beehive as the Prime Minister was being interviewed live on air! The quake was widely felt throughout the North Island, with Wellington and Levin experiencing the strongest shaking.