Andaman tsunami threat
Scientists have made urgent inspections of the Andaman Sea floor amid fears it might collapse and cause a tsunami worse than December 2004.
Dr Anond Snidwongs, a scientist with the Asia Pacific Network for Global Change Research, said yesterday that Thai and German researchers had been studying the stability of the seabed and the possibility of a landslide under the Andaman Sea around the edge of the continental shelf.The research stems from the tsunami 19 months ago. After the disaster, English and German researchers inspected the continental shelf at the Sumatra-Andaman fault and found signs of collapsing sediment. They believed there was a risk of an underwater landslide at the site if the fault was activated. Dr Anond said a research team had to analyse sediment at the site to try to determine the risk and level of disturbance an underwater landslide might cause. "A collapse of undersea sediment always happens in steep areas around the edge of the continental shelf. An underwater landslide would be several times more violent than those that happen on land," he said. The mass of sediment collecting could be millions of cubic metres and able to be carried more than 100km.
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