Equipment needed to forecast future tsunami<\/p>\n
Abdul Khalik and Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post\/Jakarta\/Bandung<\/p>\n
The government needs to invest in more equipment and must conduct
\nmore research in earthquake-prone areas nationwide to better
\nmonitor earthquakes activity.<\/p>\n
The Meteorology and Geophysics Agency's (BMG) head of
\nearthquake early prevention unit, Budi Waluyo, said on Monday
\nthat the existing equipment was inadequate to monitor
\nearthquakes.<\/p>\n
\"We do not have adequate equipment and technology like China
\nand Japan, despite the fact that tectonic earthquakes themselves
\nare difficult to predict. China and Japan have established proper
\nearly warning systems for earthquakes,\" he said.<\/p>\n
The existing equipment consists of leftovers from the Dutch
\ncolonial period, donations from the UNESCO in 1976, and from the
\nFrench government in 1990.<\/p>\n
Until now, Budi said, the Indonesian government has never
\nbought equipment because of the high expensive involved.<\/p>\n
\"Besides adequate equipment, we also have to deploy scientists
\nwith all kinds of expertise to monitor and analyze changes in
\nclimate, gravitation and magnetic fields in all the areas that
\nare prone to earthquakes. All of this, of course, will require
\nhuge sums of money,\" he added.<\/p>\n
The massive magnitude 9.0 quake, which originated off Sumatra,
\nand subsequent tsunamis are believed to have killed more than
\n23,000 people across Southeast and South Asia, including more
\nthan 7,000 in Indonesia.<\/p>\n
Indonesia monitors earthquakes at more than 10 manned
\nobservation points across the country and five unmanned points
\nbuilt at weather monitoring stations, said Hiroshi Inoue, a
\nsenior researcher at the National Research Institute for Earth
\nScience and Disaster Prevention in Tokyo.<\/p>\n
Kyodo reported that the institute is working with the
\nIndonesian government to establish an adequate earthquake
\nmonitoring network.<\/p>\n
The manned observation points transmit data from seismometers
\nvia telephone, while some of the unmanned points are prone to
\nbreakdowns, Inoue said.<\/p>\n
Indonesia's BMG has been trying to create a satellite-based
\ndata transmission network. According to the plan, about half of
\nthe network should have been completed by now, but the process
\nwas frustrated by a limited budget, he said.<\/p>\n
In contrast, Japan, whose land area is about one-fifth the
\nsize of Indonesia, has about 1,000 observation points that are
\nmostly automated. In addition, Japan has some underwater
\nseismometers.<\/p>\n
Indonesia, which lacks a sufficient number of quake
\nobservation points, monitors only inland earthquakes and relies
\non the U.S. Geological Survey for data concerning offshore
\nearthquakes, including the one that devastated the region Sunday.<\/p>\n
\"I got the impression that the Indonesian government was
\ntelling the public to stay away from seashores after an
\nearthquake,\" Inoue said as quoted by Kyodo. \"The country was
\nmaking efforts to establish a monitoring network with a limited
\nbudget. I am very sad that it could not be established in time.\"<\/p>\n
International scientists said after the quake that the current
\ninternational early warning system would have saved many lives
\nbut they admitted that predicting the precise time and place
\nquakes would strike was difficult.<\/p>\n
Budi said the BMG might have received warnings after the quake
\nbut there was no time to take action as both Aceh and North
\nSumatra provinces were too close to the epicenter.<\/p>\n
\"We usually receive warnings from the system for earthquakes
\nwith a magnitude over 6 on Richter scale. But in Sunday's case,
\nthere was nothing we could do in the several minutes that we
\nhad,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Moving at about 800 to 900 kilometers per hour, the waves took
\nonly around 10 minutes to hit Meulaboh, the nearest city on
\nAceh's West coast, he added.<\/p>\n
Phil McFadden, chief scientist with Geoscience Australia, said
\nthe current warning system might have saved lives in areas not
\ntoo close to the epicenter, but it was useless to warn places
\nnear it.<\/p>\n
\"In places close to the epicenter of the 9.0-magnitude
\nearthquake that triggered the waves any warning given by an alert
\nsystem similar to one that already operates in the Pacific likely
\nwould have been too late,\" he was quoted by AP as saying.<\/p>\n
Dadang K. Mihardja of the Bandung Institute of Technology said
\na scientist with the institute had predicted in 2002 that there
\nwould be a major quake in the area within 170 years after the
\nlast one 1833.<\/p>\n
\"Danny H. Natawidjaja predicted as much in his dissertation
\nbut we do not have the access to decision makers and besides, we
\ndon't know the exact time and place of the earthquake either,\" he
\nsaid.<\/p>",
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