The Californian scientists that have been analysing sound waves produced during the Asian Tsunami have discovered that a tsunami produces a unique
sound signature, meaning that monitoring stations set up to listen for illegal A-Bomb testing will be able to give warning of future tsunamis.
news.bbc.co.uk
In the weeks following the 26 December earthquake, moves began to establish an integrated warning system for Indian Ocean tsunamis, replicating the
Pacific Ocean system co-ordinated from Hawaii.
A number of monitoring stations were envisaged, using a mix of water pressure sensors on the ocean floor, tidal gauges, and seismometers, perhaps
augmented by satellite observations.
On 20 January, the United Nations agreed to oversee the scheme, and despite some early political squabbling, elements are now being built.
Could the nuclear test-ban stations add anything to what is already envisaged? Roger Bowman believes so, though there may be political obstacles.
"Until this earthquake killed 200,000 people, the data was only made available to the CTBTO itself and to state signatories," he said, "and not to
any hazard-warning organisation.
"I think there is going to be a loosening of data restrictions for this purpose, and I think the kind of data interpretation we have done could be
folded into a hazard warning system."
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After the tsunami of 2004 it was obvious the area surrounding the Indian Ocean needed some sort of early warning sytstem, and maybe this is the
one.
Hopefully within the next few years a system can become operational and give us at least a little warning of another incoming tsunami, which will
hopefully avoid the devastation caused by the last.
[edit on 12/10/2005 by MickeyDee]