German Indonesian Tsunami Early Warning System

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The German Indonesian Tsunami Early Warning System ( GITEWS, "German- Indonesian Tsunami Early Warning System ") is intended to recognize a possible tsunami danger in order to warn the population on the Indonesian coast. It was erected as a result of the earthquake in the Indian Ocean in 2004 under the leadership of the Geo Research Center Potsdam together with 20 national and international partner organizations.

System structure

The measuring system as the basis of the early warning system consists exclusively of

  • Seismometers (SeisCOMP),
  • GPS stations (GPS shield) and
  • Coastal Gauges (GPS Coastal Gauges).

A system of buoys has not been part of it since 2010. Two problems, caused by the proximity to the coast, led to the abandonment of the buoy concept:

  • Buoys were misused and damaged by boat crews as berths .
  • The measured sea level rise was due to the short distance to land and the high tsunami wave speed too short before the arrival of the tsunami on land.

Buoys and sensors

The complex system, which has since been abandoned, consisted of buoys and ocean floor seismometers , earthquake and water level measuring devices on land, as well as GPS and communication satellites whose data are compared with simulated tsunamis after an earthquake. In this way, possible tsunamis can be recognized much earlier, more reliably and more precisely and the population can be warned in good time. All components communicate with one another, with the data being available online in a specially created data center .

The Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers has taken the first steps by launching the first buoy for test purposes off Sumatra . During numerous measurement trips with the German research vessel Sonne off the islands of Simeuluë and Nias off Sumatra, the seabed was measured and digitally mapped at a depth of over 5000 m.

Measuring probes are currently being brought to the ocean floor off Indonesia in order to detect seismographic changes such as earthquakes or slope slides. Their sensors correspond with the buoys and acoustically transmit the measured values ​​from the sea floor via the buoys. For this purpose, a further development of "OBS Lobster" is used, an ocean bottom seismometer that is being built by IFM-GEOMAR .

Last mile

It is the responsibility of local decision-makers in politics, the media, the police and the military to convey the warnings to the population. If a danger for the Indonesian population is recognized, they will be informed by GITEWS. The last mile project of the GITEWS project aims to inform local politicians how the warning can be passed on to the population as quickly as possible.

Project progress

In the spring of 2005, the Helmholtz Association and the BMBF designed a tsunami early warning system .

On November 11, 2008, the tsunami warning system was inaugurated by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and official test operations began.

On March 29, 2011, the system was handed over to Indonesia at a ceremony in Jakarta , thus ending the GITEWS project as planned.

As early as October 14, 2011, it was reported that all eight buoys in the system were out of order because they were either destroyed by moored fishing boats or by vandalism.

Alleged system failure

  • During a tsunami following an earthquake on October 26, 2010 off the Mentawai Islands west of Sumatra, it was reported that the warning system was not working. Two buoys in the warning chain were defective, presumably due to the fact that these buoys also served as berths for fishing boats. The real reason, however, was in the vicinity of the islands to the site of the quake; The warning from GITEWS was sent out 4 minutes 46 seconds after the quake, and the tsunami hit the Pagai Islands at about the same time .
  • During the earthquake in Sulawesi on September 28, 2018 , a gauge from the Indonesian agency BMKG 200 kilometers away from Palu could be used for a tsunami estimate for the earthquake data, even without being able to use an as yet unfinished, faster seismic underwater measuring network . However, the widespread warning did not reach the affected coast because the power supply had already been destroyed by the earthquake and the failure of the cell phone masts for text messages. Many beach goers and residents did not recognize the danger in time.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Concept ( Memento of the original from April 15, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , on the website www.gitews.de, accessed on October 13, 2015  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gitews.de
  2. ↑ Conception of the Federal Republic of Germany for the establishment of a tsunami early warning system in the disaster region of the Indian Ocean ( memento of the original from September 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Information from the BMBF.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bmbf.de
  3. ^ Norbert Lossau : German technology warns precisely of tsunamis . In: The world . November 9, 2008 (accessed November 11, 2008)
  4. ↑ Press release GFZ Potsdam: Handover of the tsunami early warning system GITEWS to Indonesia (accessed on March 29, 2011)
  5. ↑ Vulnerable warning system: German tsunami measuring buoys off Indonesia defective . In: Focus . October 14, 2011
  6. ↑ Tagesschau.de: Warning buoys defective? ( Memento from October 30, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ↑ Indonesia earthquake and tsunami: How warning system failed the victims (English), BBC, October 1, 2018.