Peru now has tsunami early warning system

October 26th, 2010

Details

The seismometers detect any tectonic movement, in land or in the seabed. The seven machines are spread evenly along the coast, each connected via satellite and invulnerable to the collapse of land communication.

The equipment purchased also includes the comms infrastructure, no length of the coast should be unprotected.

More than three years after the terrible earthquake that rocked Peru in 2007, and the earthquake in Chile this year that each prompted the government to worry about the threat of tsunamis hitting the densely populated coast, Peru has finally purchased the necessary equipment to detect the danger.

Under the direction of the Instituto Geofísico del Perú, seven seismographic meters were purchased for the sum of almost one million dollars. These will be integrated into a early warning network that also consists of satellite monitoring.

Ronald Woodman, head of the IGP states that the entire system will go into operation in no more than 4 months.

In the event of a tsunami, the population would be given time to escape to higher ground – readily available along all the coast.