Manila, Philippines – The Philippines and 29 other Pacific Rim countries are participating in a United Nations (UN)-backed tsunami warning exercise this week to improve their ability to respond to an alert and enhance regional coordination in the event of a disaster.
The Pacific Rim roughly overlaps with the geologic Pacific Ring of Fire, an area where several earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur.
Because of this, most tsunamis occur in the Pacific Ocean and connected seas, according to the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Three tsunamis have struck the region in just three years, Samoa in 2009, Chile in 2010, and Japan in 2011.
The exercise known as PacWave11 on November 9 and 10 is organized under the aegis of UNESCO’s Inter-governmental Oceanographic Commission and will be held in two phases.
In an announcement issued over the weekend, the UN said in the first phase, the exercise will consist of nine different scenarios to allow each participating country to respond to a regional or local source tsunami based on powerful earthquake events generated off the shores of the Philippines (South China Sea and Pacific Ocean), Vanuatu, Tonga, Ecuador, Central America, or Japan’s Ryukyu Islands. (Roy C. Mabasa)
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