Taiwan said yesterday it had put into service its first undersea seismic observation system, giving the nation lifesaving extra seconds or even minutes to brace for earthquakes and tsunamis.
The NT$420 million (US$14 million) system, built by Japan-based NEC Corp, consists of equipment ranging from ocean-bottom seismographs to tsunami pressure gauges and even underwater microphones.
“The system gives a much clearer picture of what’s happening. We can even hear the sounds of dolphins swimming by,” seismology center director Kuo Kai-wen (郭鎧紋) said.
“With the help of this system, we’ll be able to attain an average of 10 seconds’ extra warning if earthquakes hit off the east coast, and an extra 10 minutes to issue tsunami warnings,” he said.
The nation is regularly hit by earthquakes, as it lies near the junction of two tectonic plates.
The new alert system is centered around a submarine cable beginning at Toucheng Township (頭城), Yilan County, and stretching for 45km into the ocean in a roughly easterly direction.
Nearly 70 percent of the earthquakes that strike Taiwan hit this area, the seismology center said.
The system is deployed at a depth of about 300m, sending real-time digital information to land via submarine optical fiber cable 24 hours a day, NEC said in a statement.
The nation began considering an undersea alert system after the Indian Ocean tsunami in late 2004 killed almost a quarter of a million people.
Another undersea earthquake, as powerful as that which caused the 2004 disaster, triggered a tsunami that struck Japan in March, leaving about 22,000 dead or missing.
“The power of the two quakes was pretty much the same, but the much lower toll figure in Japan shows that early warning systems are very effective in the battle against unexpected natural disasters,” Kuo said.
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