Cusat to set up centre for tsunami studies

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*Cusat to set up centre for tsunami studies *

Staff Reporter

/Official inauguration on Thursday /

KOCHI: Research on the impact of tsunami on the coastal areas of
Kerala is slowly getting shape. As a preliminary step, the Cochin
University of Science and Technology (Cusat) has come up with a
centre for tsunami studies.

The official inauguration of the centre will be held on Thursday.
The centre plans to set up a seismic station and a tidal-gauge
network to detect the deadly waves. A sum Rs.50 lakhs will be
utilised for setting up the facilities.

The seismic station will provide information on earthquakes while
the tidal gauge will keep tabs on tidal variations off the Kochi
shore. There are four tidal gauges along the Kerala coast, including
the one in the Kochi harbour area.

The new centre, part of Cusat's School of Marine Sciences, has plans
to prepare accurate models of tsunami propagation. The School has
already geo-morphologically mapped the Alapad and Arattupuzha areas
in Kollam and Alappuzha districts respectively that were worst hit
by the tsunami.

Tsunami centre chief coordinator K.T. Damodaran said that the centre
would identify the inundation areas and demarcate hotspots in
vulnerable areas along the southwest coast of India in general and
Kerala coast in particular. "The geo-morphological and oceanographic
studies of the areas hit by tsunami like Alapad and Arattupuzha
would get top priority during the investigation. Results yielded
from research studies would be compared with the situations
elsewhere along the coastal tract of Kerala," Dr. Damodaran said.

Note created Jul 18, 2006
The Hindu : Kerala / Kochi News : Cusat to set up centre for tsunami
studies <http://www.hindu.com/2006/07/18/stories/2006071822860300.htm> -
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