Singapore: A safe place to research quakes, tsunamis

Hetty Musfirah Channel NewsAsia, Today Online 20 Feb 09;

IN AN article in December in the renowned Science journal, he warned that the next great Sumatran earthquake is coming in the next few decades.

Yesterday, the Earth Observatory of Singapore headed by Professor Kerry Sieh signalled its readiness to predict such major natural disasters and, hopefully, save “hundreds of thousands of lives”.

The Republic’s first Research Centre of Excellence dedicated to the study of earth sciences opened its doors with some $150 million of funding for the next 10 years and a strong South-east Asian focus.

Among its immediate projects: Setting up an experimental GPS station at the Nanyang Technological University, where the centre is located, which will serve as a prototype for the next generation of advanced geophysical sensors.

Information from its new sensors will be merged with data already streaming in from a monitoring network stretching over 1,500 kilometres along the west Sumatran coast. The data will be collected and analysed in Singapore and partner laboratories and will be made available to researchers worldwide through the centre’s website.

While natural calamities such asvolcanic eruptions have yet to affect the Republic, the authorities believe the centre has much to contribute from its safe setting.

“Singapore is such a natural place in which we can set up a centre of expertise through our research, to be a source of knowledge and information about seismic activity of tsunamis and earthquakes in this region,” said Dr Francis Yeoh, the CEO of the National Research Foundation.

“Certainly, being a source of knowledge would be helpful for government policymakers and industry in this region.”

So, the centre is also setting up an interactive database on volcanic unrest between and leading up to eruptions, known as the “wovodat”, in close partnership with the Smithsonian Institution in the United States.

“Wovodat will allow us to mine the wealth of data that already exists in ancient documents in this observatory or in the archives ... so that when there is a period of volcanic unrest, say in Yogjakarta or Merapi, or a volcano in Western Sumatra, we will much more quickly be able to assess what the unrest might mean,” said observatory director Prof Sieh.

The observatory also has one eye on the ground in Singapore — namely, students. It plans to embark on programmes and curriculum development in secondary schools and junior colleges to spark students’ interest in earth sciences.

In the course of the next five years, the centre hopes to attract some 20 researchers and 50 graduate students.
NTU sets up GPS monitoring station
Zeinab Yusuf, Business Times 20 Feb 09;

AN experimental global positioning system (GPS) station will be set up at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and will be the prototype for the next generation of advanced geophysical sensors.

Handling the project is the NTU's Earth Observatory of Singapore (EOS), which officially opened yesterday. EOS is the first of its kind in Asia.

'Data streaming in from the current, far-flung monitoring network stretching over 1,500km along the west coast of Sumatra, merged with the information from its new sensors, will be collected and analysed both here in Singapore and in its collaborators' laboratories,' said NTU.

The experimental GPS station was among 18 proposals submitted by EOS scientists - on earthquake science, volcanology and climate change - for consideration by EOS's scientific advisory board that convened yesterday.

Another major project underway is to refine and scale up an interactive global database, WOVOdat, on volcanic unrest between and leading up to eruptions. This project will see EOS working closely with the Smithsonian Institution in the United States.

The EOS, which receives up to $150 million in funding over the next 10 years from the National Research Foundation and the Ministry of Education, aims to provide research and data on serious environmental threats including tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and climate change, with a focus on South-east Asia.

EOS director Kerry Sieh said: 'You are close to earthquakes but you are not likely to be affected by them directly but you still have neighbours that you have to be concerned about, so the creation of this centre shows that you care about your neighbours.'

The EOS may also soon be rolling out education programmes to reach out to students in secondary schools and junior colleges to spark their interest in the earth sciences.

The curriculum is being worked on with the National Institute of Education and will be piloted with a leading autonomous school by April this year, explained Sharmini Blok, EOS education & outreach director.

As part of the EOS's aim to increase the depth of knowledge in the field of earth sciences, NTU will be offering a PhD programme starting in 2010.

Earth Observatory to monitor seismic activity
Speedy alert system part of new centre's projects
Amresh Gunasingham, Straits Times 20 Feb 09;

AN EXPERIMENTAL monitoring system that collects and analyses seismic activity along Sumatra's western coastline is one of three projects in the works at the new Earth Observatory of Singapore (EOS).

The country's first Research Centre of Excellence dedicated to studying environmental threats - such as earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and climate change - in South-east Asia had its official opening at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) yesterday.

Among the projects is a prototype Global Positioning System (GPS) station, which speeds up the transfer of data on seismic activity, making it quicker to know when an earthquake has struck. The data is transmitted via satellite or the Internet to a database in Singapore, from which researchers across the world can access through the EOS website.

Current GPS systems monitor tectonic plate movement and volcanic activity in the South-east Asian region through over 30 data transmission devices located along a 1,500km stretch of the western Sumatran coast. But these networks also take up to a week to transmit information back to seismic data collection centres.

'We plan to upgrade these systems by introducing new types of sensors and better telemetry such that once an earthquake strikes, we will know - within an hour - when and where it happened,' said Professor Kerry Sieh, the director of EOS.

'The technology we are dreaming of putting together does not exist in any GPS system anywhere in the world,' he added. Faster detection will help emergency response workers evacuate casualties in affected regions - potentially saving hundreds of thousands of lives.

Two other projects are also in the pipeline at EOS.

One is the development of an interactive global database - known as WOVOdat - to study volcanic unrest between and leading up to eruptions in the South-east Asian region.

EOS principal investigator Chris Newhall, the world's foremost authority on volcanism in South-east Asia, said of the project: 'The more we can learn about the pre-eruptive processes, the better the forecasts on volcanic eruptions.'

Professor Newhall invented the widely used Volcanic Explosivity Index that was successfully used to forecast the timing and nature of the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines, saving thousands of lives in the process.

EOS's third project involves igniting scientific curiosity in secondary schools and junior colleges.

At the opening ceremony, Dr Francis Yeoh, chief executive of the National Research Foundation (NRF), said that although Singapore is shielded from natural hazards such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, 'it is the natural place, given its geographical location in the region, to build a centre of expertise for knowledge and information about seismic activities, tsunamis and earthquakes'.

EOS receives $150 million - jointly funded by the NRF and the Ministry of Education - to carry out its research activities. It also receives another $75 million from NTU.

Research centre on earth sciences aims to be an asset to the region
Hetty Musfirah Abdul Khamid, Channel NewsAsia 19 Feb 09;

SINGAPORE: Singapore's first Research Centre of Excellence (RCE) dedicated to the study of earth sciences has opened its doors.

With some S$150 million of funding for the next 10 years and a strong Southeast Asia focus, the centre is set to push the understanding and prediction of major natural disasters such as volcanic eruptions and earthquakes in neighbouring countries further.

Dr Francis Yeoh, CEO, National Research Foundation, said: "Singapore is such a natural place in which we can set up a centre of expertise through our research - to be a source of knowledge and information about seismic activity of tsunamis and earthquakes in this region. Certainly being a source of knowledge would be helpful for government policy makers in this region."

Besides attracting top scientists to carry out research, the centre will roll out projects to predict natural disasters, thereby saving lives of those in the region.

This includes setting up an experimental GPS station, touted as the next generation of advanced geophysical sensors and putting in place extensive databases, like the "wovodat".

Professor Kerry Sieh, director, Earth Observatory of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, said: "'Wovodat' will allow us to mine the wealth of data that already exists in ancient documents in this observatory. So when there is a period of volcanic unrest in Yogyakarta, Merapi or Western Sumatra, we will be able to assess what the unrest might mean more quickly."

At the local level, the observatory plans to embark on education programmes in schools to spark students' interest in earth sciences.

The centre hopes to attract some 20 researchers and 50 graduate students in the next five years. - CNA/vm