December 09th, 2015

Cliffhanger part of Earthquake Shakemap Trial in Wellington.

The house in Wellington featured on New Zealand Grand Design - and hanging OFF the 45 degrees cliff face - is one of a number of sites in the area that have the low cost Palert system installed. Connected back to a secure central server the Palerts provide data to enable shake maps to be produced within seconds of an event.  These are the initial units to be deployed and will eventually be part of a more sophisticated early warning system.

The house hangs from the cliff face and as such the units showed there is a very small strain on the foundation of under 0.2 gal (ground acceleration). Not surprising as most of the house hangs out over the cliff. An amazing piece of engineering. For more information on the house see :-
Grand Designs cliff-hanger creates prototype for steep sites

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