BY LORETTA BRIGIDIA MANELE
DATA collected at Western Province by a research team from Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau under the Tsunami, Earthquake and Cyclone Early Warning system (TEC) program is very important information nationally and globally.
This was expressed by Mr Yu-Ting Kuo, who is part of the research team and a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Earth Sciences, Academia Sincia in Taiwan.
In relation, he stressed that in the southern part of Solomon Islands, there is a large ocean trench which in geology is a natural boundary located between two crustal plates. More or so, this movement occurs when a continental plate converges or intersects with an oceanic plate forming a subduction zone which then creates a trench between the plates.
Mr Kuo adds that many earthquakes occur on this trench, noting that in 2007 in the southern part of the country, an earthquake with a magnitude of 8.1 occurred.
In this regard, he mentioned that Simbo is on the footwall just two sides of the subduction zone which is something that is quite rare globally.
“Simbo is on the footwall, just two sides of the subduction. In the global, very less, almost no two islands can besides the subduction. So this part is very important because the subduction is very active”, Mr Kuo said.
He furthers that utilizing the data they collect to help estimate the probability of whether or not an earthquake is likely to occur is the final stage they want to try to reach.
“That’s the final and very important point we want to try but before that we still have many things to figure at like how it happens”, Mr Kuo said.
