Bangkok (VNA) - Almost 1,000km off the Thai coast devastated by a tsunami 20 years ago, engineers lower a detection buoy into the waves – a key link in a warning system intended to ensure no disaster is as deadly again.
In December 2004, a 9.1 magnitude earthquake under the Indian Ocean triggered a huge tsunami with waves up to 30m high.
Only a rudimentary warning system was in place at the time, with no way to alert the millions of people living around the Indian Ocean in advance. More than 225,000 people were killed in a dozen countries.
The tsunami killed more than 5,000 people in Thailand, according to official figures, with thousands missing.
Known as Deep-Ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis (Dart), the system now has 74 buoys around the world.
Each floats on the surface while tethered to the seabed, monitoring signals from a seismic sensor on the ocean floor and changes in the water level.
Installed in some of the toughest working environments anywhere on the planet, the battery-powered buoys must be replaced every two years.
In Thailand, Dart buoys are connected to 130 alarm towers across coastal provinces, forming an early warning system capable of notifying residents about an impending tsunami within 5-7 minutes.
Experts predict that the risk of a tsunami on the scale of the 2004 disaster is inevitable. Therefore, improvements to the tsunami detection and response system are crucial to protect the lives of many people./.
