Supercomputer could hold key
2005-03-14 12:30
Canada - As Asia rushes to erect a tsunami early warning system, Canada is searching for a supercomputer to alert experts of a tidal surge they fear could one day crash onto its Pacific coast.
Federal officials this week put out a tender for a supercomputer worth US$140 000 in the wake of the December 26 Indian Ocean tsunami tragedy which killed nearly 300 000 people.
Countries around the Pacific Rim responded to the disaster by looking at their own, in some cases inadequate, planning for tidal wave early warning systems and existing computer modelling.
"I expect these new generation computer models will be tested against the extreme data from Sumatra," said Robin Brown, researcher with the Canadian government's Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
"If they're found to do a good job, they'll probably be implemented in many places in the world because this is a relatively cheap way to figure out your risks."
'We're due for one'
Seismologists believe big earthquakes and tsunamis occur here only every 300 to 500 years. The last "big one" hit Canada's West coast about 300 years ago. Japanese records show it damaged several fishing villages on the other side of the Pacific Ocean on January 26, 1700.
Aboriginal people here tell the story passed on to them orally by their ancestors of entire villages and thousands of people on Vancouver Island being swept away.
"The story talks about how the ground shook and then a tidal wave came and destroyed their homes and drowned people before they could get into their canoes," said Chief Robert Dennis of the Huu-ay-aht First Nation.
He has asked the Canadian government to help pay to move part of a coastal village higher up a hill at a cost of US$8.3m. Other communities expect to spend millions more to upgrade tsunami defences.
"In geological timescales, we're due for one. But, nobody knows if we're going to experience it in our lifetime or later," said Brown.
While the largest officially recorded tsunami-related loss of life in Canada occurred on its east coast, after an underwater landslide sent waves crashing into Newfoundland's coast in 1929, killing 28, Vancouver Island's jagged open coastline is considered the most vulnerable area in the country.