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.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard