January 8, 2005
Germany offers lead on tsunami warning system
Germany wants to take a leading role in setting up a system to provide early warning of tsunamis and has drawn up a plan costing an initial 40 million euros, the Research Ministry has said, reports ABCNews Online.
The Potsdam-based Geoscientific Research Institute (GMZ), which would coordinate the system, has developed a concept that could be in place in one to three years, the ministry said.
It would add 30 to 40 new stations in the Indian Ocean region to a global network of 50 seismological research bodies, and would concentrate initially on Sri Lanka and Indonesia, two of the nations hardest hit by the devastating Boxing Day tsunami which killed at least 156,000 people.
"The strength of our concept is that we are building on existing observation centres," Research Minister Edelgard Bulmahn told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. "We don't have to start from scratch."
In the event of an earthquake, a warning would be posted on the Internet in a matter of minutes and emails and SMS text messages sent automatically to regional data stations. Hotels and private individuals could also join the network.
A ministry spokeswoman said Germany was one of the few nations able to set up and operate such a system that works more or less in real time. "
Related:
-- Text message broadcasts could provide disaster alerts
-- Israeli Company Offers Free Tsunami Alert System
-- How cell phones may have helped Southern Asia
-- Links to all Tsunami/cell phone stories posted in Textually.org.
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