Japan to Install Tsunami Monitoring System at Sea

The Japanese government will install a large scale tsunami monitoring system on the Pacific seabed to speed up its warning process.
Japanese education and science ministry plans to install an underwater cable near the Nippon Trench in the Pacific Ocean, seismometers on the seabed, and tsunami detectors using hydraulic pressure sensors, according to Japan''s (NHK WORLD) website. Seismometers and tsunami detectors will be installed by March 2013 in waters off the Boso Peninsula and the Sanriku Coast.

The locations are north and south of the focus of the major earthquake that hit wide areas of northeastern Japan last year. Additional monitors will be put in place off the coast of Miyagi Prefecture and near the Nippon Trench, close to the focus of the 2011 earthquake.

A total of 150 locations will be positioned by March 2015. Separately, the Meteorological Agency will install tsunami monitors at 3 locations in waters about 400 kilometers off the northeastern coast some time this year. The data will be collected by satellites and will be used to detect a massive tsunami that is expected to occur east of the Nippon trench in the Pacific Ocean.

The data will help the Meteorological Agency release tsunami information or warnings.

During the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, Japan''s Meteorological Agency was able to monitor tsunami waves before they reached the Japanese coast, because of underwater global positioning systems off northeastern Japan. 
 

Source: BNA