Geonet

What Geonet does

GeoNet is New Zealand's official geohazard monitoring organisation, operated as a collaboration between Natural Hazards Commission Toka Tū Ake (NHC) and Earth Sciences New Zealand (trading as GNS Science). The organisation monitors earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, and landslides across New Zealand's territory, including offshore islands such as Raoul Island and Chatham Island. Headquartered in Wellington and founded in July 2001, GeoNet functions as a government-funded public-good service rather than a commercial entity, with all monitoring data and alerts provided to the public, researchers, engineers, insurers, and emergency-management agencies at no charge. Funding flows from NHC Toka Tū Ake and Earth Sciences New Zealand, and 24/7 GeoHazards Analysts based at the National Geohazards Monitoring Centre (NGMC) verify and issue official Volcanic Alert Levels and Aviation Colour Codes.

The technical platform is built around a national sensor network of approximately 50 seismic stations, 18 coastal tsunami gauges plus one lake sensor, a DART deep-ocean tsunami system, volcano webcams, GNSS stations, strong-motion sensors, and envirosensors. Real-time data is transmitted from stations to central data centres and the cloud, where automated detection algorithms analyse P- and S-wave arrivals against seismic velocity models to locate events. Earthquake forecasts use aftershock-sequence models based on ~100 years of global observations; slow-slip events on the Hikurangi subduction zone are tracked via GNSS; landslides are monitored at sites including a five-station deployment in Fox Glacier valley. Data products include earthquake drums, quake search, strong motion maps, shaking layers, volcanic activity bulletins, tsunami gauge feeds, and a geomagnetic dashboard, all delivered through geonet.org.nz, a mobile app with push notifications, multiple APIs (GeoNet API, Tilde Time Series API, Shaking Layers API), the FDSN international network, AWS Open Data, and a WFS service.

The go-to-market motion is API-first and self-serve, targeting citizens, civil-defence and emergency-management agencies (including NEMA), infrastructure engineers, insurance organisations (including NHC Toka Tū Ake), aviation stakeholders, and the global research community (USGS, International Seismological Centre). GeoNet has no commercial pricing model, no patents or trademarks on file, no named management team in the input, no recorded funding rounds, and no M&A activity; growth is realised through expanded monitoring coverage, additional hazard data products, and new distribution channels rather than through revenue capture.

Name

Geonet

Legal name

GeoNet (Earth Sciences New Zealand)

Website

https://geonet.org.nz

Company type

Private

Founded year

2001

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

GeoNet is a New Zealand government-funded collaboration between NHC Toka Tū Ake and Earth Sciences New Zealand that provides free, real-time monitoring and public alerting for earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, and landslides across New Zealand via a nationwide sensor network, APIs, and a mobile app.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Geohazard Monitoring Services

NAICS

Geophysical Surveying and Mapping Services (54136)

akta.pro primary industry

Continuous/Remote Monitoring Systems (IoT Sensors, Telemetry, Networks) (EUAHACAL)

akta.pro secondary industries

Geotechnical Instrumentation & Monitoring (Settlement, Inclinometers, Piezometers) (IMAFAOAH), Remote Sensing & Earth Observation Analytics (Satellite/UAV/LiDAR, Image Processing) (EUAHAKAD)

Keywords

• Geohazard monitoring
• Earthquake detection network
• Volcano monitoring systems
• Tsunami gauge network
• Seismic data platform

Headquarters

HQ city

Wellington

HQ country

New Zealand

HQ region

Oceania

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Personnel, Operations

Revenue model

1. Government Funding: GeoNet is funded by the New Zealand government through its collaboration partners Natural Hazards Commission Toka Tū Ake and Earth Sciences New Zealand. All data and services are provided free of charge to the public.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels7 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

GeoNet operates New Zealand's national geohazard monitoring network, providing real-time detection and location of earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, and landslides. It collects continuous data from a nationwide array of seismometers, strong motion sensors, GNSS instruments, tsunami gauges, DART deep-ocean sensors, and volcano cameras, then disseminates the data free of charge through its website, mobile app, APIs, AWS Open Data, and partner channels for public safety, emergency management, engineering, insurance, and research use.

Product overview

GeoNet is New Zealand's geological hazards monitoring organisation, operating as a collaboration between NHC Toka Tū Ake (Natural Hazards Commission) and Earth Sciences New Zealand (GNS Science). The system provides a comprehensive suite of monitoring products across four core hazard categories: Earthquake Monitoring (including Drums, Quake Search, Earthquake Forecasts, Strong Motion Data, and Slow Slip detection), Landslide Monitoring (with Fox Glacier Valley monitoring and landslide dam assessment), Tsunami Monitoring (via the Tsunami Gauge Network and DART deep-ocean system), and Volcano Monitoring (including Volcanic Activity Bulletins, Volcano Cameras, and RSAM/SSAM analysis). Supporting data access is provided through APIs (GeoNet API, Tilde Time Series API, Shaking Layers API), the Tilde Data Discovery tool, and distribution via AWS Open Data.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Earthquake Monitoring Comprehensive earthquake monitoring service providing real-time earthquake detection, location, magnitude determination, and shaking intensity data across New Zealand through a network of seismographs and strong motion sensors. Used by emergency management agencies, engineers, insurance risk assessors, researchers, and the general public.
• Quake Search

Quantifiable outcome

• GeoNet locates between 50 and 80 earthquakes each day, approximately 20,000 per year
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers7 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles6 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration1 record

Feature9 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Natural Hazards Commission Toka Tū Ake (NHC)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNHC Toka Tū Ake is GeoNet's primary funding partner and collaborator. The commission is responsible for the dissemination of national official tsunami notifications and provides key guidance for natural hazard preparedness. GeoNet's monitoring data supports NHC's mandate to help New Zealanders prepare for, respond to, and recover from natural hazards.
• Earth Sciences New ZealandcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerEarth Sciences New Zealand is the other founding partner of the GeoNet collaboration. The organization holds copyright over GeoNet content which is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 New Zealand License.
• GNS SciencecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerGNS Science is the Crown research institute that provides scientific expertise for GeoNet. GNS scientists produce earthquake forecasts, operate the National Geohazards Monitoring Centre (NGMC), conduct landslide rapid response missions, and provide technical support for tsunami warnings. GNS developed the basic aftershock model used for earthquake forecasting.
• National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNEMA is responsible for dissemination of national official tsunami notifications in New Zealand. With technical support from GNS Science, NEMA assesses messages from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center to determine tsunami threats.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Geoscience Australia: Australia's national geoscience agency, operating seismic monitoring and hazard alerting across the Australian continent. Closest geographic and functional analogue to GeoNet in terms of national-scale geohazard monitoring mandate and government-funded operating model.
• Icelandic Meteorological Office (Veðurstofa Íslands): Operates Iceland's seismic and volcano monitoring network, including real-time alerts for Katla, Reykjanes, and other active systems. Comparable scale and combined earthquake/volcano mandate in a small, tectonically active country.
• USGS Earthquake Hazards Program: Operates the US national seismic network, produces earthquake forecasts, and disseminates authoritative hazard information globally. The USGS aftershock model underlies GeoNet's own forecasting framework, and GeoNet supplies preliminary earthquake data to USGS NEIC for worldwide events.
• British Geological Survey (BGS): UK national geoscience agency operating seismic monitoring and producing earthquake information products for government and public. Comparable public-good mandate, government ownership, and focus on seismic hazard monitoring and data dissemination.
• Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV): Italy's national institute for geophysics and volcanology, operating seismic and volcano monitoring networks (including Etna and Vesuvius) and producing hazard alerts. Comparable mandate combining earthquake, tsunami, and volcano monitoring under a publicly funded research framework.
• Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC): NOAA-operated tsunami warning center for the Pacific basin. NEMA relies on PTWC messages as part of NZ's tsunami alerting chain, making PTWC a direct functional peer for GeoNet's deep-ocean DART and coastal gauge-based tsunami monitoring.
• European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC): Aggregates and rapidly disseminates earthquake information from national seismic networks across Europe and the Mediterranean. Comparable API-first data distribution model and role as a secondary disseminator of authoritative seismic data.
• GNS Science (Earth Sciences New Zealand): GeoNet's founding partner and parent entity, GNS Science provides the scientific expertise, aftershock modelling, and 24/7 GeoHazards Analysts that underpin GeoNet's forecasting and alerting. Operates as the technical backbone of the same national geohazard monitoring system.

Broad incumbents

• Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA): Japan's national authority for earthquake, tsunami, and volcano monitoring and warning. Operates a far larger and more densely instrumented network than GeoNet and represents the gold-standard benchmark for tectonic-plate-boundary hazard monitoring in a comparable seismic setting.

Emerging players

• NIWA (National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research): New Zealand's Crown Research Institute for atmospheric and aquatic research. Provides tidal coefficients used by GeoNet for tsunami gauge de-tiding and complements GeoNet's geohazard monitoring with oceanographic and atmospheric data within the same NZ government science ecosystem.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/geonet

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Geonet