Tsunami warning center starts full operations

A tsunami early warning center built by China and covering nine countries went into full operation on Tuesday to mark the fourth World Tsunami Awareness Day.

The South China Sea Tsunami Advisory Center is hosted by China's National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center and was authorized by UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission. It began trial operations in January last year.

"So far, as we can see from the trial operation, the capability of the center has been enhanced," said Wang Hong, chief of the State Oceanic Administration of China at the launch ceremony in Beijing.

Wang said the Smart Tsunami Information Process System had also operated stably during the trial operation.

The system, which China owns the intellectual property rights to, will beef up the capability of the South China Sea region to mitigate the impact of tsunamis and offer important guarantees on the safety of lives and property.

Yu Fujiang, director of the National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center, said the advisory center will be able to issue tsunami warnings 10 minutes after an earthquake, thanks to the smart system.

With access to real-time data from over 600 earthquake monitoring stations, including 530 in foreign countries, the tsunami advisory center is able to figure out the basic parameters of an earthquake within three to five minutes no matter where it occurs, he said.

In addition to 106 domestic stations for water level monitoring, the tsunami advisory center receives data from over 800 such stations across the world, he added.