Visit from the "China Earthquake Institute"
This week, we had the pleasure of hosting a delegation from China's Earthquake Administration (CEA). We exchanged knowledge and shared professional perspectives on earthquake-related topics.
Norway has had diplomatic cooperation with China for over 70 years, and the countries have recently signed a new joint action plan for 2024–2027. This plan aims to strengthen collaboration in research, technology and innovation. The Research Council of Norway, which also participated during the visit, works closely with Chinese partners to identify and follow up on concrete measures.
NORSAR and CEA already have an established collaboration through international forums such as IASPEI (International Association of Seismology and Physics of the Earth's Interior), where both organisations are represented in the leadership team.
The visit began with a gathering at NORSAR in Kjeller, where we exchanged information and held professional lectures on earthquake-related topics. The University of Oslo also participated, contributing their expertise and experience from previous cooperation with China.
We have many common professional challenges regarding how we can make societies more resilient and prevent damage from earthquakes. In particular, earthquake risk was central to the discussions, both in terms of how we can better understand the risk of earthquakes and the connections with other risk factors, such as simultaneous natural hazards. The latter is central to the EU project MEDiate, which NORSAR coordinates. It was very interesting to learn more about China’s approach to these challenges, a country that experiences over 400 earthquakes annually with a magnitude of 4 or higher. China’s location at the convergence of several tectonic plates makes the country significantly more exposed to earthquakes than Norway.
On the second day of the visit, we had the pleasure of showing our delegation the seismic station at Stendammen in Løten. This station plays an important role in ensuring that Norway and the international community have access to reliable and accurate seismic data. The station is part of the international monitoring system associated with the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, which prohibits nuclear test explosions, and is one of six stations operated by NORSAR on Norwegian territory for this purpose.
