PARIS, Feb. 13 (UPI) -- The United Nations says 45 million people living along the coasts of Europe will benefit from a new life-saving project to provide early warning of a tsunami.
"The risk of tsunamis in this region might be relatively low, but if one occurred and we weren't prepared the damage will be extensive," Peter Koltermann, head of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission Tsunami Co-ordination Unit of UNESCO, said Tuesday.
However, he said, 10 percent of all observed tsunamis in the world occur in the Mediterranean Sea.
The new project consists of an Italian initiative to provide non-stop processing and coverage of seismic data in the seas around Europe. This data, which is essential for detecting earthquakes that potentially generate tsunamis, could significantly boost protection of Europe's heavily developed and populated coastlines.
The Italian plan was presented to an intergovernmental conference organized by UNESCO in Bonn, Germany, last week.
The data will be provided by one of Europe's largest research institutions in the field of geophysics, seismology and vulcanology, the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, which will serve as the system's first hub for immediate data delivery and dissemination.
An initial detection system is expected to be ready by the end of this year, with the full system covering all coasts from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean and the northeastern Atlantic available by 2011. This system will be based largely on existing national seismic and sea level monitoring activities, which although extensive, need to be integrated to function as an effective regional system.
