Scientist says Pacific alert proves that tsunami warnings work

The forewarning of Pacific Rim nations before the Chilean tsunami arrived was proof that tsunami alerts are doing their job, said Reinhard Kind of the German earth sciences institute GFZ at Potsdama German who is building a similar system in the Indian Ocean.

Apart from ravaging the coast of Chile, the tsunami does not appear to have done serious damage elsewhere in the Pacific. The Pacific tsunami alert was broadcast to more than 50 nations. ‘The tsunami near the Chile quake zone was 2 to 3 metres high, whereas off Sumatra in 2004, the waves were 20 to 30 metres high in some places,’ Kind said.

The German-designed system combines data from seismographs, global positioning system transmitters, tidal instruments, seabed sensors and buoys.

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