By SubTel Forum
Focus Taiwan is reporting that Taiwan's first underwater earthquake observation system came closer to fruition Thursday with the installation of an important submarine cable off the country's northeast coast by the Central Weather Bureau (CWB). Â Under the Marine Cable Hosted Observatory (MACHO) program, the bureau laid a 45-kilometer cable from its land station in Yilan County's Toucheng region into the Pacific Ocean.
When an earthquake or tsunami occurs, the CWB explained, seismic data detected by seismometers or pressure gauges in the sea can be delivered through the Toucheng station to the bureau via fiber-optic cable and leased line. Â “We can buy at least 10 seconds of warning in an earthquake and 10 minutes in a tsunami,” said CWB Director-General Shin Tzay-chyn.
