Australia makes big wave with monitoring center

Source: Agencies  |   2008-11-1  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

AUSTRALIA yesterday became an integral link in a network of tsunami warning hubs across the Indian and Pacific oceans with the official opening of a national monitoring center.

The Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Center that opened in the southern city of Melbourne joined India as a "tsunami watch provider" for 29 countries on the Indian Ocean rim that are prone to the killer waves, said Ray Canterford, head of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology's disaster mitigation office.

Work on the A$69 million (US$46 million) center developed by the federal government was launched six months after the 2004 tsunami that killed more than 200,000 people in 14 countries.

It will provide essential sea-level and seismic data to the Pacific warning network to Southwest Pacific island nations. This data was critical to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii and the Japanese Meteorological Agency in Tokyo, Canterford said.

Eventually, there would be a network of several countries on the Indian Ocean rim with their own tsunami-warning centers sharing scientific data.