Malta: Tsunami early warning

By Matthew Agius

Over the past four years, the Seismic Monitoring and Research Group within the Department of Geosciences at the University of Malta has enhanced its real-time seismic monitoring capability and data exchange with other Mediterranean countries through the Simit project.

Now, in a follow-up €2.5 million project called Simit-Tharsy – Tsunami hazard reduction system – the department will enhance its seismic monitoring capabilities and incorporate real-time data from tide gauges to monitor potential tsunamis more accurately. Simit-Tharsy will strengthen the infrastructural systems and the contingency planning systems already present in the Malta-Italy cross-border region and will constitute a new platform for information exchange between civil protection departments in Malta and Sicily and scientific institutions, specifically, addressing monitoring, rapid assessment, alert and rapid intervention in the case of tsunamigenic earthquakes.

Specialised software is being installed to run case-study scenarios providing the national authorities with necessary information for emergency planning and management. These models will provide predictions of the tsunami travel times and expected sea level height across the Mediterranean for a specified earthquake scenario, with special attention on the Maltese islands. Such modelling can help understand how the local bathymetry can affect the wave propagation inside creeks, for example. The recent tsunami that hit the city of Palu, in Indonesia, had an unexpected wave height of six metres instead of the estimated 0.5 metres, probably due to the geographical shape of the bay.

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