Russia’s Far East participates in int’l drills to prevent tsunami in Pacific

VLADIVOSTOK, February 3. /TASS/. Russia’s Far East participates in international exercises to prevent tsunami in the Pacific. At drills specialists in Kamchatka, Sakhalin and Primorsky Territory in Russia’s Far East will obtain data about an emerging natural disaster and will forecast possible developments, Primorsky weather forecasting service said on Tuesday. "For Russia’s anti-tsunami service which includes Primorsky, Sakhalin and Kamchatka territorial sub-systems, according to the scenario of the drills, an imaginary 9-point tsunami-triggered earthquake will occur off Japan’s coast. A tsunami is planned to hit the coast of the Kuril Islands and Kamchatka, spreading into the Sea of Japan (the East Sea), the Sea of Okhotsk and the Bering Sea," the weather-forecasting service said. According to the scenario, an imaginary earthquake will break out at 1am UTC on February 4. After this possible developments are forecast and decision-making is drilled. The public will not be informed during these exercises. "Drills mainly aimed at testing experimental products of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre which is located in Honolulu, U.S. Hawaii Islands, to forecast tsunami quickly and accurately and make a Pacific tsunami response more urgent." These exercises proposed six scenarios for focal points of a tsunami-triggered earthquake, namely South America, Central America, Tonga Trench, Nansei Trench (Ryukyu Islands), Manila Trench and Japanese lowland. Primorsky tsunami warning centre is in control of the northern part of the Sea of Japan and the north-western part of the Pacific. To avert natural disasters the anti-tsunami centre interacts urgently with seismological data-processing centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences Geophysical Service. The centre aims to give an urgent response to signals about a possibly rising tsunami. Read more