INCOIS can Issue Tsunami Bulletins in 10 Minutes

Hyderabad: On December 26, 2004, the Sumatra earthquake triggered widespread destruction and introduced Indians to tsunamis and their destructive ability to wipe out coastal areas. Sixteen years down the line, today thanks to the Indian Tsunami Early Warning Centre (ITEWC) at Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) in Hyderabad, Indian scientists are capable of issuing tsunami bulletins within 10 minutes of any major earthquake in the Indian Ocean.

In response to the threat of a tsunami, the Ministry of Earth Sciences, established the Indian Tsunami Early Warning System at INCOIS in October 2007 and since then it has been successfully providing early warnings of impending tsunamis in the Indian Ocean region.

The ITEWS comprises a real-time seismic monitoring network to detect tsunamigenic earthquakes, the real-time sea-level network of tsunami buoys and tide gauges to monitor the tsunami waves, and numerical models to estimate the tsunami travel times and wave heights at the coast.

The 24X7 operational tsunami warning centre at INCOIS has advanced computational and communication infrastructure to receive and analyse real-time data from hundreds of sensors and provides timely advisories to vulnerable communities. As a Regional Tsunami Service Provider (TSP), the INCOIS is also providing tsunami advisories to 25 countries in the Indian Ocean.

INCOIS Director Dr Srinivasa Kumar said that the early warning centre has made India much safer against the threat of tsunamis. “We will continue to work towards building disaster resilient coastal communities by adopting the latest scientific advancements and undertaking community preparedness initiatives under a multi-hazard framework,” he said.

Source: TelenganaToday