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Bureau
ready for another tsunami The 24-hour monitoring unit gets regular updates of seismic activity from seismic stations with which the GSMB maintains a network, Dr. Bernard Prame, Assistant Director, GSMB said. The GSMB monitors signals from stations based at Pallekele, Cocos Islands (situated more than 2000 kms south-east of Sri Lanka), Diego Garcia (located more than 1000 kms south of Sri Lanka) and WRAB Station, Tennant Creek in Australia. This seismic data is also automatically transmitted to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), where the exact location and magnitude of the quake is measured and the relevant data is then made available on the USGS website within 15 minutes to half an hour of the earthquake's occurrence. The GSMB has put in place a warning system with the assistance of the Police to disseminate information on any such warning. On recepit of any warning the GSMB will immediately notify Police Headquarters and the Joint Operations Headquarters of the Navy. The main 24-hour Police Information Centre based in Mirihana, in turn will inform the relevant police stations and ranges along the coastal belt and the media of the possible danger. These police stations would then warn the public along the coast via a public address system (a loudspeaker fixed on the roof of police jeeps). However, this might not be a very viable plan if the warning needs to be disseminated in the middle of the night or early morning, an officer at the Information Centre revealed. A group of British scientists revealed recently the imminent danger of another earthquake in the Sumatra region. The probability of an earthquake reaching a magnitude of between 7 and 7.5 on the Richter scale is said to be the most immediate threat to the Indonesian island, according to Prof. John McCloskey, who heads a team at the School of Environmental Sciences, Ulster University in Britain. Dr. Prame says the GSMB cannot disregard or ignore any predictions of these scientists as they have carried out advanced research on these issues. Furthermore, it is not possible to disagree with their findings as countries like Sri Lanka do not have adequate data to come to their own conclusions and have to depend on information from foreign experts. Japanese,
US assistance for interim setup The Interim Technical Committee was set up to coordinate activities with the International Oceanographic Commission (IOC) as well as obtain international assistance, until such time a National Tsunami Warning Centre was set up. "Until such time a warning centre is in place for the Indian Ocean, which might take up to 2 years, the Interim Technical Committee would coordinate matters," said Meteorological Department Director General G.H.P. Dharmaratne. An Inter-governmental Coordination Group is to finalise a blueprint for a multi-hazard tsunami warning system for the Indian Ocean. At the conclusion of a high level meeting organized by the IOC in Paris early this month, the member states were tasked with establishing a National Tsunami Warning Centre as well as an operational contact point. They were further advised to identify a Disaster Management National Focal Point for increasing public awareness of tsunamis. Sri Lanka is to set up technical committees for early warning monitoring and mitigation of disasters under the National Council for Disaster Management. Once set up, the national tsunami warning centre would be able to receive, react and disseminate warning information round the clock. |
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