Balearic Government to ask for tsunami alert systems

THE Balearic parliament yesterday approved unanimously a proposal to urge the central Government to install alert systems to detect the formation of tsunamis in the Balearic region and the rest of coastal Spain, a measure which would make it easier to evacuate the civil population in time, if the occasion arose, and thus avoid the loss of human life. Francisco Molina, deputy for the Partido Popular (PP) said that, according to experts, 80 percent of seaquakes happened in the Pacific Ocean, 10 percent in the Indian Ocean and 10 percent in the Mediterranean Sea where they are less intense. He underlined that the Balearics are “relatively” close to the area of risk for Mediterranean earth and seaquakes, formed by the fault from North Africa to the Azores and the Straits of Gibraltar. He also said that in May 2003 the port of Sant Antoni in Ibiza suffered the after effects of an earthquake in Algeria, with waves of up to 1.8 metres which caused severe damage.