UWI (St. Augustine) workshop sheds light on tsunamis
By Trinidad & Tobago Express
Tue, 26 Jun 2007, 09:59
A training workshop designed to provide participants with an understanding of the science behind tsunami warnings and operational best practices was opened yesterday at the University of the West Indies in St Augustine.
Campus principal Dr Bhoendradatt Tewarie said the workshop would also address "other natural hazards to which the Caribbean is exposed and will spell out the role of the tsunami early warning system to meet the onset of such hazards".
Tewarie was delivering remarks yesterday at a ceremony held at the UWI Learning Resource Centre to officially open the "Caribbean Training Programme in Seismology and Tsunami Warnings".
He said that the workshop was being hosted by the UWI Seismic Research Unit and was "related to the continuing major upgrade by the unit of its seismograph network and to the increase of its capacity to detect and provide early warnings of potentially tsunamigenic earthquakes".
He noted that "such an increase in capacity building is critical since detection systems succeed ultimately only if the information that is obtained through such systems can be disseminated quickly and effectively".
Tewarie said that the university and its seismic research unit were determined to "remain in the forefront of efforts to play a major role in the tsunami and coastal hazards warning system and in regional capacity building".
He noted that although the Caribbean had been spared the impact of major natural disasters such as the tsunami in the Indian Ocean in December 2004, "major earthquakes, tidal waves and similar natural disasters, continue to cause damage and substantial numbers of casualties" internationally.
He pointed out that "tsunamis due to submarine earthquakes, landslides and submarine explosions do pose real threats. Kick'em Jenny, a submarine volcano located north of Grenada, remains a threat to the southern Caribbean and we cannot be complacent".
Tewarie said that the region therefore "must adopt proactive programmes to minimise the damage that tsunamis and other coastal hazards can cause", and said that the workshop was a step in that direction.