24/01/2005

Royal Navy ship to survey tsunami earthquake epicentre

The Royal Navy have announced that they are sending HMS Scott to undertake a survey of the earthquake epicentre of the Indian Ocean disaster.

HMS Scott's survey will provide the 'base map' for further extensive research into earthquakes and how they work. The ship's tasking will provide bathymetric and geological assessment of the Asian earthquake epicentre, off Sumatra, in Indonesia and extended fracture zone.

Bathymetry is the depth of the seafloor. HMS Scott is fitted with a swatch bathymetry system, which will enable it to measure seafloor depths over a region up to several kilometres either side of each survey track. The system is specially designed for deep water (more than 200km). The depth of water in the area the ship will be studying varies between 200m and 5000m.

The earthquake epicentre lies within the Indonesian Exclusive Economic Zone and the survey will fall under the definition of Marine Scientific Research under United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The Indonesian government have agreed to the survey taking place.

The HMS Scott is currently in Singapore, where it is taking on stores and awaiting the arrival of scientists from Southampton Oceangraphic Centre and British Geological Survey, who will assist in the study. The ship is expected to sail today and will begin the survey in two or three days time.

HMS Scott left the UK last November to undertake a programme of Military Data Gathering (MDG) in the North Atlantic, Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean. She is expected to return to the UK in April.

The Royal Navy said that although the HMS Scott would not be directly involved in the humanitarian relief effort, her survey work would "greatly assist" scientists in understanding the cause of the tsunami.

(KMcA/SP)

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