Indonesia is lacking records on Tsunami and Paleotsunami (ancient tsunami). The record was started in the last 400 years; meanwhile giant tsunamis are often to have a cycle more than 400 years.
UGM’s tsunami researcher Dr Hendra Amijaya conveyed this in UGM campus on Friday (14/11). He added that in the latest research, researchers found out that a giant tsunami also happened in several hundred years ago in Aceh and Thailand. This finding was published in an international journal called “Natureâ€.
He believed that if the data were recorded, the government and the local society might’ve done something to reduce the amount of victims and losses. Therefore, there is another way of ‘early warning’ besides technology-based warnings.
Therefore UGM and Science Institution of Indonesia (LIPI) felt that it is important to increase the capacity in paleotsunami researches in Indonesia. Therefore LIPI, UGM, Geosciences Australia, Unhas, Unsoed and Undip will held “Workshop on the Application of Paleotsunami Science to Tsunami Mitigation in Indonesia†in Saturday, 15 November 2008 at wisma Kagama, UGM.
According to the organizing committee member Dr Indra Amijaya said that the workshop in Yogyakarta is a part of workshop series held in 5 cities, which are Bandung, Makassar, Yogyakarta, Purwokerto, and Semarang from 8 to 20 November 2008.
There will be researchers from Indonesia (LIPI & ITB), Australia (Geoscience Australia) and U.S.A (USGS) giving materials in the workshop. These researchers were involved in the research that came out with proofs of the giant tsunami hundred years ago in Aceh-Andaman.
The workshop will reveal the founding process of those proofs and the implication of it. Moreover, the workshop will also reveal the latest research result on paleotsunami in southern area of Java, one of them is the giant tsunami in Lombok, Biak and Simeulue Island in 400 hundred years ago,†said the Geology Lecturer.
(Public Relations of UGM/Gusti Grehenson)