Tsunami in Singapore?

With news just in of another massive earthquake in Aceh, I noticed the prescient remarks made in 2008 by Professor Kerry Sieh, founding director of NTU's six-month-old Earth Observatory, who said "Sumatra will be hit by 'the next big one...in the next 30 days or 30 years'"

11 Apr 2012 earthquake at Aceh from BBC News

Also in 2008,  Professor Wong Poh Poh of the National University of Singapore geography department said Singapore "can be hit by a tsunami generated from three locations"


Here's some extracts from my earlier post Is Singapore immune from tsunamis and earthquakes?

Tsunamis not impossible

extracts from Singapore not completely immune from tsunamis: expert AFP Yahoo News 19 Sep 08

Singapore can be hit by a tsunami generated from three locations and the waves could damage key coastal infrastructure without being too high, said Professor Wong Poh Poh of the National University of Singapore geography department.

"We don't need 10 metres. The problem with Singapore is... we have a lot of infrastructure on the coast. All you need is a very low wave to just come in and hit certain areas," he said.

"Changi Airport will be very vulnerable," he said, adding the man-made island of Jurong which houses a sprawling petrochemical complex is also at risk, and urged the government to commission a study on tsunamis.

Earthquakes likely

from Think Singapore is safe from quakes? Distance may not guarantee safety, going by past cases, Christopher Tan, Straits Times 12 Sep 08

Is a big earthquake expected soon?
Professor Kerry Sieh, founding director of NTU's six-month-old Earth Observatory, said Sumatra will be hit by 'the next big one...in the next 30 days or 30 years'.

'We have a geological record that goes back 1,000 years. It shows the region being hit by major quakes every 200-300 years,' he said. 'The last cluster of powerful quakes happened about 200 years ago. We're entering a new cluster.'

He noted that the major quakes which hit Sumatra last September and the subsequent tremors are part of a process leading to the 'next big one', which he said could be a quake as powerful as 8.8 on the Richter scale.

Let's hope the current earthquake is not a repeat of the devastating 2004 tsunami.

Updates will be posted to wildsingapore news, apologies for delays as low spring tide field trips continue.