Another Tsunami

[tursiops]

I was trying to locate the buoys on the DART map to get a general idea of where they would be, are there id numbers for the non functional buoys you are referring To?

Probably not....since the system decayed and never stayed operational. See Dropbox - 22_Pandoe-Indonesia-Tsunameters.pdf. Also, see this for later developments that have been stalled for want of $112k. New Indonesia tsunami network could add crucial minutes

 

[driftwood]

?? I don't see that in the article. The DART buoys trigger an alert on a 3cm (in deep water) event. If the Tsunami was 1m coming ashore, it might well have been too small in deep water to trigger the event detector, although the DART buoy could see it with its 1mm resolution. The problem is that the Indonesian DART buoys are not functioning.

You are right, the topography and coastlines amplify the event. Indonesia is a sitting duck.

"This was not a common tsunami," said Costas Synolakis, director of the University of Southern California's Tsunami Research Center. "This was a volcanic tsunami ... it did not rise to the level of triggering an alert. So from that point of view, the Tsunami Warning Centers were essentially useless."

Didn't make it up.

Truth be told, I don't know anything about tsunami warning systems other than the fact they exist. I just remember reading about the Krakatoa eruption in 1883 and how some parts of the coastline were devastated while others rode out the tsunami with little damage.

 

[driftwood]

Here is a BBC article that has maps of the area and estimated arrival times of the tsunami.

"Tsunami warning buoys are positioned to warn of tsunamis originated by earthquakes at underwater tectonic plate boundaries. Even if there had been such a buoy right next to Anak Krakatau, this is so close to the affected shorelines that warning times would have been minimal given the high speeds at which tsunami waves travel," observed Prof Dave Rothery from the UK's Open University."

Indonesia tsunami: How a volcano can be the trigger - BBC News

 

[scubafanatic]

The DART system doesn't care what generated the Tsunami, it just senses the Tsunami itself. It might have helped....222 people wish it had been functioning.

According to your referenced article, it's not functioning because the locals have either vandalized or stolen the buoys, pretty much on par for Indo.