Recent Advances in the Indian Tsunami Early Warning System

  • S S C SHENOI ESSO-Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad

Abstract

The Sumatra earthquake of December 26, 2004
generated a tsunami that affected most of the Indian
Ocean rim countries. The tsunami caused catastrophic
losses of life and property in near field and the far
field regions, such as Somalia. Although people living
at the coast near the epicenter of the earthquake had
little time to escape, those living farther along the
coasts of Sri Lanka, India, Maldives and the countries
on the east coast of Africa had time to move to the
higher grounds to protect themselves. Unfortunately,
the loss was inevitable as there was no tsunami
warning system in place in the Indian Ocean. The
overall loss made this event a prime educator for the
people around the world about the hazardous tsunami
and highlighted a global failure in mitigating such
disaster.

Published
2017-02-09