ISLAMABAD – Tsunamis cause great damage and devastation, as seen recentlyin Japan where 15,000 died in 2011 with an earthquake of magnitude 9producing waves 20 meters high.
A study published in the Geophysical Journal International suggests that a1,000 km fault line at the northern end of the Arabian Sea near Pakistanposes a similar threat and may cause large scale tsunamis.
The Makran Coast is a subduction zone, an area where one of the earth’stectonic plates is dragged below another. This can cause massive faultsknown as “megathrusts”, leading to high magnitude earthquakes in the areaand cause massive tsunamis.Coming Together for Mutual Benefit
A tsunami near this area may affect not only Pakistan but India, Oman,Iran, the Maldives and other countries bordering the Indian Ocean. The lastreported tsunami in this area was in November 1945 when more than 4,000people perished in Southern Pakistan, causing devastation along the coastsof India and Oman.
Given the huge risks of a tsunami in this area, the United NationsEducational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has started aproject and provided funding. Iran has been a key player in this projectand cooperated with UNESCO on several studies on the Makran faultline andthe effects it can have on the Iranian coast.
So far, Iran has been independently researching the matter just likePakistan, Oman, and India but now they are joining forces to achieve betterand more accurate results.
A faculty member of the National Institute of Oceanography and AtmosphericSciences Iran, Mahmoud Reza Akbarpour, says that the project will be usedto identify high-risk areas and zones along the Makran coast withinstitutions working on giving the first warning, evacuating the area,dealing with a tsunami and its aftermath.