Commemorating 20 Years Of Aceh Tsunami, US Institution Reshuffles Tsunami Warning Technology

Historical tsunami data maps (Doc. NOAA)

JAKARTA The National Ocean and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) learns many things to prevent and warn of the dangers of natural disasters for the US community. One thing to learn is the potential tsunami.

NOAA uses the world tsunami database based on historical and its location from 2000 BC to date. This data set is available at the Hazardous Event Lookup (HazEL) interface developed by NOAA's National Information Center (NCEI).

On December 26, the whole world commemorated the third largest earthquake recorded in the world since 1900. This earthquake occurred on the island of Sumatra and caused a tsunami in Aceh, which then spread throughout the Indian Ocean.

This tsunami hit the coastlines of 17 countries in Southeast and South Asia as well as East and South Africa. More than a quarter of a million people were victims and the Aceh tsunami caused a loss of 13 billion US dollars (Rp 211 trillion).

Reflecting on this incident, NOAA is trying to improve disaster detection and tsunami preparedness capabilities. The agency has increased coastal water level stations to 188 to support tsunami warning operations.

NOAA is also improving its global seismography network with 100 percent real-time seismic data, developing forecasting models to estimate tsunami arrival times, starting the TsunamiReady program, and much more.

According to NOAA, tsunamis can strike any US coast and territory at any time. The most potentially areas are the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea basins. That way, tsunami monitoring tools are increased in the region.

Based on the Global Historical Tsunami Database around 1900 to 2015, 754 tsunamis occurred with a percentage of 78 percent in the Pacific Ocean and 5 percent in the Indian Ocean. The highest tsunami percentage occurred in Japan and Indonesia.

Looking at this data, it is very likely that the US region will be hit by a tsunami so that prevention needs to be carried out periodically to protect the public and prevent state losses. The reason is, the US has always experienced a tsunami twice in a decade.

So far, NOAA has two tsunami warning centers in the US operating 24 hours a day and 7 days a week to monitor and alert tsunamis caused by the earthquake. This tool is also monitored directly by scientists.