Emergency tsunami alerts would be sent to mobile phones through the nation’s Public Warning System after powerful earthquakes strike offshore, the Central Weather Bureau said on Monday.
The tsunami warning will be the latest service offered by the system, which already notifies 4G service subscribes of earthquakes, thunderstorms and typhoons.
Tsunami warnings are to be sent under two scenarios.
The first is when a tsunami is triggered by a distant earthquake and forecast by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) to reach Taiwan within three hours, the bureau’s Seismology Center said.
The message would include an estimated time of arrival and wave height according to the location of each mobile phone user, center section chief Lin Tzu-wei (林祖慰) said.
Under the second scenario, the system would send alerts when there is a strong offshore earthquake with a shallow focus that could pose a tsunami threat to coastal areas, the bureau said.
Earthquakes with a magnitude of 7 or higher and a depth of less than 35km centered in waters between 20 and 27 degrees north latitudes, and between 118 and 124 degrees east longitudes would trigger alerts, the center said.
The system is to divide Taiwan into six regions: north, northeast, east, southeast, southwest and the Taiwan Strait area, which covers the nation’s west coast and outlying counties.
“The messages will be sent within 10 to 15 minutes in the case of an offshore earthquake to warn people to avoid coastal areas and go to higher places,” Lin said.
The timing for issuing a warning for distant tsunamis is more difficult, because it depends on when the alert is released by the PTWC and the amount of time experts need to figure out its effects on Taiwan, he said.
The tsunami warning system is to send text messages only.
A sound alert accompanies warnings for earthquakes with a magnitude of 5 or higher that have an intensity of three or above in Taipei and four or above in other areas, Lin said.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai