ANDAMAN ISLANDS, India (28 July 2006) -- Thai and German scientists will this week begin mapping the seabed of the Andaman Sea off the coasts of Phuket and Phang Nga to better prepare for similar disasters as the December 26, 2004 tsunami, media reports said Sunday. After a year of preparations the team, including scientists from Thailand's National Research Council and the Deutsche Forschungsgeneinschaft, will begin surveying parts of the Andaman off Thailand's southwestern coast that are more than 500 metres deep, called the continental margin area off. "We have to sail a total of 3,000 miles (5,560 kilometres) in the study area in the middle of the Andaman Sea, 200 miles from Phuket's coast," German oceanologist Wilhelm Weinrebe told the newspaper. The project, sponsored by the Tsunami Fund, aims at better understanding the still mysterious Andaman seabed to prepare for natural disasters such as the tsunami of 2004 that killed more than 5,300 people in Thailand, half of them western tourists vacationing in Phuket and Phang Nga beach resorts. The Andaman seabed has a steep dropoff into a canyon that is more than 500 metres deep, causing string currents and underwater tidal waves. | | The 2004 tsunami caused extensive damage and loss of the life in the Andaman Islands. "If an earthquake reaches this canyon feature and part of it slides, the powerful wave underwater could cause a secondary tsunami. This is just one example of the consequences," said Thai scientist Anond Snidvong of Chulalongkorn University. Since 2004 tsunami, Thailand has put in place warning systems at popular beaches along the Andaman coast and by December this year should have buoys in the surrounding sea to help alert authorities to unusual ocean activities. The mapping of the Andaman off Thailand's coast is expected to take four years. A similar project is already underway off the coast of Indonesia but mapping of the sea off India, Myanmar (Burma) and Malaysia has yet to begin. SOURCE - DPA |
