Taipei, Nov. 16 (CNA) Taiwan's first undersea monitoring station is expected to begin operation by 2011, allowing for faster reporting of undersea earthquakes and earlier warnings ahead of tsunamis, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said over the weekend. Japan-based NEC Corp. recently won the contract to build the station at an estimated of cost NT$400 million. It will be located 45 km off Toucheng in the northeastern county of Yilan, at between 2,000 to 3,000 meters below sea level, according to CWB Director-General Shin Tzay-chyn.
Kuo Kai-wen, director of the CWB's Seismological Center, noted that the northeastern part of Taiwan is the area most susceptible to earthquakes because of the tectonic movements of the Philippine plate and the Eurasian plate.
Although land-based earthquake stations can also detect undersea seismic movements, they usually take a longer time to collect such information, Kuo said.
The undersea monitoring station will cut the reporting time for undersea earthquakes occurring off Taiwan's east coast by at least 10 seconds, Kuo said.
It will also improve the tsunami warning time by 10 minutes, he added.
(By Wang Shu-fen and Y.F. Low)
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