Scientists in New Zealand have developed a new alert system that could have provided warnings ahead of the White Island eruption, which killed more than a dozen people in 2019, BBC News reports.<\/p>\n
New Zealands new system relies on a machine learning approach and algorithms to review real-time data about volcano eruptions.<\/p>\n
The research which was published in Nature Communications said it could have saved 21 people from dying during the White Island eruption of volcano Whakaari in December 2019. <\/p>\n
Shane Cronin from the University of Auckland, told BBC News that the current warning system has acted too slow to provide warnings for people (on) the island.<\/p>\n
He said: The current (alert system) collects data in real-time but what tends to happen is that this information gets assessed by a panel and they have an expert process ... this all takes a while. The way we warn for volcanoes was good enough 10 years ago but its not actually moving with the times.<\/p>\n
The new systems shows patterns of seismic activity before an eruption that make advance warning possible, Cronin and University of Auckland academics David Dempsey told The Guardian. <\/p>\n
Had our system been in place (on Whakaari last year) it would have raised the alert 16 hours before the volcanos deadly eruption, they said.<\/p>\n
Of course, the data isnt full-proof, and there would likely be some mistakes, researchers told The Guardian. But it would provide warnings as early as possible, which could potentially save lives.<\/p>\n
The trade-off is that the alerts, if acted upon, would keep the island off-limits to visitors for about one month each year, they said.<\/p>\n
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New Zealands new volcano alert system could have warned about White Island - Deseret News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Scientists in New Zealand have developed a new alert system that could have provided warnings ahead of the White Island eruption, which killed more than a dozen people in 2019, BBC News reports. New Zealands new system relies on a machine learning approach and algorithms to review real-time data about volcano eruptions. Continue reading