In 2004, tragedy struck Indonesia. An underwater earthquake triggered multiple tsunamis, or giant ocean waves. They smashed into the island nation. Over a quarter million people died. It was one of the deadliest natural disasters recorded in human history. Thirteen years later, Indonesia is still trying to find a reliable way to detect the disturbances that cause such events.
Indonesia’s current tsunami detection system is a network of seafloor sensors. The devices are meant to connect with buoys on the surface. The buoys are supposed to give early warnings to folks on land. Right now, the system is useless. The buoys are broken.
Last year, a large earthquake struck 106 miles from Padang on Sumatra’s west coast. None of the existing system’s 22 buoys were operable. All were damaged by vandalism or lack of maintenance. Replacing them is costly, at hundreds of thousands of dollars each.
Now Indonesian and U.S. scientists have developed a new system that may add vital extra minutes of storm warning for coastal cities.
The tsunami-warning prototype detects certain tsunamis. Researchers have tested the prototype near Padang. But the model still needs government funding.
The new network doesn’t need buoys. Instead, undersea devices send data-laden sound waves to the surface waters. From there, they ping back into the depths, traveling to the next node in the network and so on.
At its final undersea point, a couple miles of fiber optic cable will connect the node to a shore station. Data from the station would transmit via satellite to tsunami warning agencies and to Padang disaster officials.
“This entire process likely takes one to three minutes instead of the five to 45 minutes typical of the buoy system,” says Louise Comfort, a disaster expert.
Not everyone thinks a detection system is needed. They say an earthquake itself signals the need for a speedy retreat.
For many Indonesians, memories of the 2004 tsunami are still fresh. Most people living near the coast do head for high ground whenever the land shakes, as it frequently does.
But will they continue, especially after numerous false alarms? Febrin Ismail is concerned they won’t. He is a structural engineer involved in tsunami planning for Padang. Ismail believes a more reliable warning system will save lives. He says, “Sometimes after the earthquake, people are running and then they see the tsunami doesn’t come. In the future maybe they don’t run again.”
