BANGKOK, March 13 (UPI) -- Thailand is preparing evacuation plans for tourists and residents on its southern coast after recent underwater tremors in the Andaman Sea, officials said.
Smith Dharmasarojana, head of the National Committee on Natural Disaster Warning, said the activity was worrying as underwater earthquakes could trigger another tsunami like the one that struck in 2004, the Bangkok Post reported Monday.
The committee said that between March 9 and 12 it had detected 39 earthquakes ranging in magnitude from 4.0 to 5.3 near the Andaman Islands, some 500 kilometers (310 miles) west of the southern province of Ranong.
The epicenter of the quakes was located 20 kilometers (12 miles) below the seabed, the same depth as the Indian Ocean earthquake that triggered a disastrous tsunami in 2004, leaving more than 220,000 people dead in Thailand and several other countries.
After the disaster, the government developed an early tsunami warning system in cooperation with neighboring countries and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii.
