MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

French scientist warns of potential fault areas

The Mediterranean, Caribbean and the South Atlantic have geological systems “almost identical” to the Sumatra fault line which caused the seaquake of last December 26, according to a French scientist interviewed by the “Le Parisien-Dimanche”.

"When we see what has happened in the Sumatra fault line, there are motives for urgent action in other world zones", particularly in the "urbanized areas" of the Mediterranean and Caribbean, said Mr. Michel Villeneuve.

Head of the Seismic Research Centre in the University of Provence, (southeast France), Mr. Villeneuve who for years has followed the Southeast Asian faults, including Sumatra, revealed that there are no seaquake sensors in the Mediterranean.

"We have seismic sensors but no sea sensors", which could help anticipate the formation of a wave, warned the French scientist, adding that it's urgent to determine the risk zones of the Mediterranean and establish an alert system.

Mr. Villeneuve said that submerged "pressure sensitive and caption" instruments are needed because they are the only mechanisms capable of detecting a deep sea movement such as those that can generate a tsunami.

"A seaquake which affects the Camargue province (southeast France) could reach the city of Arles, 25 kilometres inland", warned Mr. Villeneuve.

Portugal 250 years ago was the victim of three successive seismic quakes comparable to that of the Indian Ocean last December 26. In 1755 Lisbon was devastated partly by the earthquakes but mainly because of the gigantic waves five and ten metres high which followed, according to chronicles from that time. University of Provence Marine Department is one of the main scientific research institutes in southern France.