Banda Aceh, Aceh (ANTARA News) - The Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) is to install a tsunami early warning buoy in the Simeulue waters, Aceh province, early next week.
"We plan to arrive in the waters off Simeulue`s northern coast early next week to install the tsunami early warning buoy," the chief of a team aboard research vessel Baruna Jaya III, Iyan Turyana, said on Saturday.
He made the remark when receiving Aceh Deputy Governor Muhammad Nazar aboard the research vessel which had just arrived in Aceh after installing a tsunami early warning buoy in the waters of Mentawi islands, West Sumatra province.
The research vessel with 22 researchers and 17 crew members aboard is expected to leave Malahayati pier in Aceh Besar district for the Simeulue waters on Sunday.
The tsunami early warning buoy called Ina buoy is assembled by BPPT. The equipment is capable of detecting signs of whether or not there is quake vibration in the sea.
The Ina buoy which was for the first time developed in Indonesia in 2006 consists of buoy unit and bottom unit.
The buoy unit to be installed in the Simeulue waters will float on the sea surface and the bottom unit will be placed 15 meters below the sea surface. The equipment will any time send signs of natural movement beneath the sea and later send the information to the monitoring station at the BPPT by satellite.
Most of Aceh`s coastal areas was devastated by a tsunami triggered by a magnitude 8.9 earthquake on December 26, 2004, killing around 200,000 people.
The province was again rocked by a powerful quake on April 7, 2010.
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