World Of Tsunami

Tsunami Victims Should Be Allowed To Move Into New Homes - Abdullah

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj) — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 14:57:00 +0000

"What are they waiting for?" asked Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi when told that the 2004 tsunami victims in Penang are still waiting for the greenlight to move into their new houses."Those who qualify and meet the conditions should have moved into the new houses by now," he told reporters after presenting Hari Raya goodies to the poor organised by the Kepala Batas Umno division here Sunday.He said the tsunami victims should demand an explanation from the relevant authorities why they were not allowed to occupy the new houses and tell the authorities their reasons of wanting to move into their new houses quickly.Reports said that the victims are still staying in temporary longhouses in Tanjung Bungah since the giant wave destroyed their homes three years ago although their new houses, built by government company Syarikat Perumahan Negara Berhad (SPNB), are ready for occupation since February 22.They were supposed to move in last month but it were unable to do so due to an alleged disagreement between the state government and SPNB over the price of the 100 apartment units built for them.Penang Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon was quoted as saying that the price should be fixed at RM42,000 but the SPNB was reported to have defended the RM52,000 price tag.

Latest Tsunami Updates

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj) — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 14:53:00 +0000

India Develops a Tsunami Warning Sytem

India has developed its own tsunami warning system, barely three years after it was caught off guard by killer sea waves spawned by a massive earthquake wreaked havoc along its southern coastline.
The National Early Warning System for Tsunami and Storm Surges in the Indian Ocean, a project of the Ministry of Earth Sciences, has taken shape at the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) here.
Scientists last week installed two bottom pressure recorders (BPR), key sensors that indicate the generation of tsunami, off the Gujarat coast in the Arabian Sea.
A set of four BPRs have already been installed in the Bay of Bengal region and were put to test on September 12 when a massive undersea earthquake hit southern Sumatra.
"There are two tsunamigenic zones in our vicinity -- the Andaman-Sumatra trench in the Bay of Bengal and the Makran coast in the Arabian Sea," said INCOIS Director Shailesh Nayak explaining the need to install BPRs in the two regions.
INCOIS, in association with Tata Consultancy Services, has generated simulations of possible 550 scenarios of triggering of tsunami after massive earthquakes.
"The information about magnitude, location and depth at which an earthquake has occurred is fed into computers which picks up an appropriate scenario and simulate formation of tsunamis," he said.
"We are able to issue tsunami alerts within 30 minutes of an earthquake," Nayak said.
The system is likely to be inaugurated by Earth Sciences Minister Kapil Sibal on October 15. (Agencies)

Latest Developments in the Field Of Tsunamis

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj) — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 14:46:00 +0000

Tsunami warning system

A tsunami warning system is a system to detect tsunamis and issue warnings to prevent loss of life and property. It consists of two equally important components: a network of sensors to detect tsunamis and a communications infrastructure to issue timely alarms to permit evacuation of coastal areas

Various Tsunami Warning Systems around the world

Pacific Ocean
Tsunami warnings for most of the Pacific Ocean are issued by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC), operated by the United States's NOAA in Ewa Beach, Hawaii. NOAA's West Coast/Alaska Tsunami Warning Center (WC/ATWC) in Palmer, Alaska issues warnings for the west coast of North America, including Alaska, Canada, and the western coterminous United States. PTWC was established in 1949, following the 1946 Aleutian Island earthquake and a tsunami that resulted in 165 casualties on Hawaii and Alaska; WC/ATWC was founded in 1967. International coordination is achieved through the International Coordination Group for the Tsunami Warning System in the Pacific, established by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO.[1]

Indian Ocean (ICG/IOTWS)
Main article: Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System
After the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami which killed almost 230,000 people, a United Nations conference was held in January 2005 in Kobe, Japan, and decided that as an initial step towards an International Early Warning Programme, the UN should establish an Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System.[2]

North Eastern Atlantic, the Mediterranean and connected Seas (ICG/NEAMTWS)
Main article: North Eastern Atlantic, the Mediterranean and connected Seas Tsunami Warning System
The First Session of the Intergovernmental Coordination Group for the Tsunami Early Warning and Mitigation System in the North Eastern Atlantic, the Mediterranean and connected Seas (ICG/NEAMTWS), established by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO Assembly during its 23rd Session in June 2005, through Resolution XXIII.14, took place in Rome on 21st and 22nd November, 2005. The Meeting, hosted by the Government of Italy (Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry for Environment and Protection of the Territory), was attended by more than 150 participants from 24 countries, 13 organizations and numerous observers.

Regional warning systems
Regional (or local) warning system centres use seismic data about nearby earthquakes to determine if there is a possible local threat of a tsunami. Such systems are capable of issuing warnings to the general public (via public address systems and sirens) in less than 15 minutes. Although the epicenter and moment magnitude of an underwater quake and the probable tsunami arrival times can be quickly calculated, it is almost always impossible to know whether underwater ground shifts have occurred which will result in tsunami waves. As a result, false alarms can occur with these systems, but due to the highly localised nature of these extremely quick warnings, disruption is small.

Causes Of Tsunami

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj) — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 14:38:00 +0000

A tsunami can be generated when the plate boundaries abruptly deform and vertically displace the overlying water. Such large vertical movements of the Earth’s crust can occur at plate boundaries. Subduction earthquakes are particularly effective in generating tsunami. Also, one tsunami in the 1940's in Hilo, Hawaii, was actually caused by an earthquake on one of the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. That earthquake was 7.8 on the Richter Scale.
Tsunami are formed as the displaced water mass moves under the influence of gravity and radiates across the ocean like ripples on a pond.
In the 1950s it was discovered that larger tsunami than previously believed possible could be caused by landslides, explosive volcanic

action, and impact events when they contact water. These phenomena rapidly displace large volumes of water, as energy from falling debris or expansion is transferred to the water into which the debris falls. Tsunami caused by these mechanisms, unlike the ocean-wide tsunami caused by some earthquakes, generally dissipate quickly and rarely affect coastlines distant from the source due to the small area of sea affected. These events can give rise to much larger local shock waves (solitons), such as the landslide at the head of Lituya Bay which produced a water wave estimated at 50 – 150 m and reached 524 m up local mountains. However, an extremely large landslide could generate a “megatsunami” that might have ocean-wide impacts.
The geological record tells us that there have been massive tsunami in Earth's past.

Tsunami: A Brief Introduction

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj) — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 14:27:00 +0000

A tsunami (IPA: /(t)sʊˈnɑːmi/) is a series of waves created when a body of water, such as an ocean, is rapidly displaced. Earthquakes, mass movements above or below water, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explosions, landslides, large meteorite impacts and testing with nuclear weapons at sea all have the potential to generate a tsunami. The effects of a tsunami can range from unnoticeable to devastating. The Latin derivative of the word for the smaller waves experienced across the Italian coast was Fillius Sum Sunamus which means, son of tsunamis, inspired by the Japanese word similar to "tsunami" after relations with the shogun of Japan. The term tsunami comes from the Japanese words (津波、つなみ) meaning harbor ("tsu", 津) and wave ("nami", 波). [a. Jap. tsunami, tunami, f. tsu harbour + nami waves. - Oxford English Dictionary]. For the plural, one can either follow ordinary English practice and add an s, or use an invariable plural as in Japanese. The term was created by fishermen who returned to port to find the area surrounding their harbor devastated, although they had not been aware of any wave in the open water. Tsunamis are common throughout Japanese history; approximately 195 events in Japan have been recorded.
A tsunami has a much smaller amplitude (wave height) offshore, and a very long wavelength (often hundreds of kilometers long), which is why they generally pass unnoticed at sea, forming only a passing "hump" in the ocean. Tsunamis have been historically referred to tidal waves because as they approach land, they take on the characteristics of a violent onrushing tide rather than the sort of cresting waves that are formed by wind action upon the ocean (with which people are more familiar). Since they are not actually related to tides the term is considered misleading and its usage is discouraged by oceanographers