Israeli company to monitor Vrancea seismic area next year

An Israeli company will monitor the Vrancea seismic area next year. Company claims it can predict earthquakes 4 to 8 hours in advance, their location and magnitude. Technology it owns allows it to investigate the ionosphere - upper layer of the atmosphere - and not the earth, for its prediction activity. Polytechnic University of Bucharest is a partner in this project which aims to predict over 90% of Vrancea earthquakes.

RRA Reporter: Next tests of the early warning system will take place simultaneously in California (United States) and Romania and will last approximately six months. Polytechnic University of Bucharest is the research institution that will supervise the functioning of the system in Romania and will register test results, in order to prove accuracy of the forecasts.

According to Professor Nathan Blaunstein, Head of the research team, the idea for this system was launched in the 1980s, but it was only last year that it could be successfully tested. New technology manages to decode data from the earth's ionosphere, a part of the atmosphere that is largely influenced by changes in earth's crust, changes that take place long before the earthquake.

„We are facing an international premiere, and the state authorities could implement this seismic warning system within the RO-ALERT National System”, said Mihnea Costoiu, Rector of the Polytechnic University - part of this project.

Mihnea Costoiu:This performance must be transformed, brought to society in a smart way. Four hours seems enough time to get out of the house, to save your life; it means very little, though, if we are not able to organize ourselves. It is enough time to shut down the reactors in Cernavodă. Institutions need to create an effective response system, so that this kind of information does not create panic, but on the contrary, saves us, helps us all.