From the Seattle Times: The 8.9-magnitude earthquake that ruptured the seafloor off Japan was the first major test of the nation's $1 billion investment in earthquake early warning technology.

Along with the U.S. Geological Survey, a consortium of scientists have been fine-tuning and testing a prototype warning system in California for years. Rolling it out statewide would cost $100 million, according to an article in the Seattle Times.

The price tag for a system in Washington and Oregon, which face more powerful but less frequent quakes than California, would be about $50 million. Maintenance and monitoring would require an additional $6 million a year.

While those costs are small compared with the multibillion-dollar toll of even a modest earthquake. But with the state budget in its current state, Washington is considering cuts to the existing seismic-monitoring program. Read the entire article here.