Chinese Government provides RMB 10 million grant for establish Samoa–China Seismic Monitoring Network

On January 11, 2009, before the September earthquake and tsunami hit the Samoan Islands, an agreement was signed between the Samoan and the Chinese Governments to establish Samoa's first seismic network to monitor earthquakes, increase resilience to earthquakes and tsunamis, and improve early warning system already in place.

With the SIGMA (Samoa Integrated Geohazards Monitoring Array), there were a number of goals.

First, the establishment of the seismic network intended to observe and research local earthquakes associated with land movements along major fault lines and volcanos.

Second, the project aimed to assess the potential for tsunami generation, which will enable strategic adaptation and disaster planning associated with such hazards.

Furthermore, since China hoped to foster regional seismic monitoring collaborations with neighboring South Pacific countries, improving the efficiency of the earthquake and tsunami monitoring was also considered when setting up the network. The project was scheduled to start in late 2009 but was postponed to mid-2010 due to the effects of the tsunami.

The Samoa China Digital Seismic Network (SCDSN) began its installations in October 2011 completed its final installations in June 2012, and the network went into effect in July 2012.

The SCDSN consists of 4 permanent broadband seismic stations (in Togitogiga, Afulilo, Vaiaata, and Asau), 3 portable short-period seismic stations, and a National Data Center in Apia with related data transmission equipment.

The purpose of the SCDSN is to significantly enhance local monitoring capability for local earthquakes above magnitude 4 on the Richter scale, located in Upolu and Savaii, and within a 200 km offshore radius of the islands. The Chinese Government provided an RMB 10 million (WST 4.8 million) grant for the project.

The project abided by International Seismological Network Standards.