BMKG Invites Countries In The Indian Ocean To Mitigate Together Earthquake And Tsunami Threats

JAKARTA - Head of the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), Dwikorita Karnawati encourages continued cooperation and collaboration between countries in the Indian Ocean region to minimize the risk of earthquakes and tsunamis.

This was said by Dwikorita when opening the Webinar of Lessons Learning during the Indian Ocean Wave 2023 held by the Inter-Governmental Coordination Group for Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (ICG/IOTWMS), recently.

Tsunami Aceh 2004 was a lesson for countries in the Indian Ocean region that the tsunami that occurred suddenly had a fatal impact on countries in the region and caused many casualties," said Dwikorita in a statement, Sunday, December 17, quoted by Antara.

Dwikorita, who also serves as Chair of ICG/IOTWMS, said that the Indian Ocean is one of the areas in the world that is very prone to tsunamis.

He explained, the Indian Ocean consists of two subduction zones that can cause tsunamis throughout the ocean. Therefore, the threat, he said, must be anticipated by building the capacity of all countries in order to respond to the potential for a tsunami on time.

Mainly in increasing public understanding and awareness, as well as increasing information affordability to the public.

One way to increase public preparedness for the tsunami threat is by forming a Tsunami Ready Community. The Ready Community Tsunami is a program to increase people's capacity in dealing with tsunami threats based on 12 indicators of hazard potential assessment (assessment), preparedness and responses that have been set by UNESCO-IOC.

"With strong cooperation and collaboration, it is hoped that all countries will be able to provide tsunami warning services to the community, including those caused by factors other than tectonic earthquakes and tsunami warnings for non-subduction areas of the earthquake," he added.

Furthermore, Dwikorita said that in 2023, the Indian Ocean Wave Exercise 2023 (IOWave23) has been carried out with four scenarios, namely on 8 8, 11, 18, and 25 October 2023.

And, for the first time, it was decided to conduct a non-seismic tsunami simulation produced by volcanic eruptions during the IOWave exercise.

The four scenarios are the Andaman Trench Scenario starting at 04:00 UTC on Wednesday, October 4, 2023: An earthquake with a magnitude of ~9 SR off the west coast of the Nicobar Islands, India. Second, the scenario of the Palung Makran starts at 06:00 UTC on Wednesday 11 October 2023: an earthquake with a magnitude of ~9 SR in the Indian Ocean. Northwest.

Then, the three scenarios of Heard Island began at 06:00 UTC (explosion at UTC) on Wednesday, October 18, 2023: Volcano Eruption in the Kerguelen Islands Region in the South Ocean. And, the four scenarios of the Javanese Trench start at UTC on Wednesday, October 25, 2023: An earthquake with a magnitude of ~9 SR in southern Java, Indonesia.

It was revealed that at least seven Member States conducted evacuation exercises with the participation of around 45,000 people. This evacuation exercise involves the community, men, women, children, the elderly, and people with disabilities.

For BMKG itself, he said, this IOWave is very important to be implemented to evaluate tsunami early warning chains and SOP sustainability, as well as the involvement of the parties. In addition, this activity can evaluate communication links in each area related to operators of 24-7, including the completeness of communication tools and readiness of stakeholders in receiving and understanding tsunami early warnings.

This exercise is so that the government, the community, and all related parties are more skilled, deft, not awkward, and do not panic when the tsunami occurs, and know what to do if there are earthquakes and tsunamis at any time. Considering that until now there is no technology capable of predicting when an earthquake and tsunami will occur," he said.