November 25, 2008	Tuesday	Ziqa'ad 26, 1429

KARACHI, Nov 24: Defence Minister Ch. Ahmad Mukhtar inaugurated the state-of-the-art National Seismic Monitoring Network and Tsunami Warning Centre at the Meteorological Complex on Monday.

The Karachi centre, established by the Pakistan Meteorological Department with the federal government funds, is supported by 11 broadband highly sensitive seismic stations in Balakot, Muzaffarabad, Gilgit, Chitral, Quetta, Khuzdar, Turbat, Zhob, Bahawalnagar and Umerkot.

These stations are capable of recording any seismic activity in Asia and the Pacific and are connected with the National Centre through “Pak-Sat” Satellite for real-time data communication.

The National Seismic Centre Karachi is also connected with the Global Seismic Network and real-time earthquake data of about 60 seismic stations of the world.

The centre processes all the information and generating the earthquake message within three to five minutes of the occurrence of an earthquake and disseminating the message to the selected users, including the government agencies and authorities responsible for disaster management and rehabilitation activities.

Fifty local short-period seismic stations and 50 strong-ground motion recorders have also been established to record local micro-seismic activity in the country and to measure earth-shaking during quakes, respectively.

According to experts this information would be valuable in designing of the quake-resistant buildings in urban centres.

Inaugurating the centre, the minister said the government would extend full support to the meteorological department in the functioning and strengthening of this centre.

In the next phase, the PMD would be supported for installation of sea-based watch buoy systems, sonometers, sea-level network of tide gauges and satellite communication system for the establishment of an effective early warning system for the possible tsunamis in the coastal areas.—APP