The cables connect tsunami gauges and other observation devices for that purpose.
On seabeds stretching from off Hokkaido to off Chiba Prefecture, the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention (NIED) is installing tsunami gauges and other devices in 150 locations. The total length of the undersea cables will be 5,700 kilometers.
“There is no precedent anywhere in the world for such a large-scale tsunami observation network," NIED President Yoshimitsu Okada said. “Completion is scheduled for fiscal 2015. After that, it will be possible to detect tsunami waves 20 minutes earlier than we do now."
A huge earthquake with its epicenter in the Nankai Trough is expected to occur in the sea area from off the Kii Peninsula to off Shikoku. The Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) is constructing an observation network in those areas, aiming for completion in fiscal 2015.
Operations have already begun in a part of the network that extends for 250 kilometers off the peninsula, and JAMSTEC has provided data mainly to local governments on the coast.
An official responsible for the project at the Wakayama prefectural government said, “If tsunami waves can be detected in offshore locations, we’ll be able to make more persuasive recommendations that residents evacuate at an earlier time."
The Japan Meteorological Agency, universities and other entities have also been setting up similar observation networks. But there are no such observation networks using undersea cables on the seabeds of the Pacific Ocean off Kyushu, or in the Sea of Japan.
Okada said, “If tsunami observation networks are set up in all offshore areas around Japan, the total cost could be about 100 billion yen (US$824 million). Because budgets are limited, the only way is to prioritize their establishment in sea areas where huge earthquakes are predicted."
©2015 the Asia News Network (Hamburg, Germany). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
