REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, PADANG -- Researcher from the Earth Observatory Singapore (EOS) Paul Taponnier states that Mentawai Gap-Tsunami Earthquake Risk Assessment (MEGA-TERA) research agency, aims to collect data for sustainable disaster mitigation.

The MEGA-TERA research is being done by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), EOS, and the United States.

"This study is not to predict the occurring time of the earthquake and tsunami," Taponnier said here Monday.

He explained that every earthquake and tsunami studies cannot explain when the time of the disasters will take place.

MEGA-TERA study is only mapping the exact collision zones between the plates on the western side of Sumatra and the Mentawai islands.

"This research project is inspired by the enormity of the earthquake and tsunami impacts that occurred in 2004 in Aceh and 2010 in Mentawai," Taponnier said.

With the accurate mapping, he said, it can facilitate the disaster mitigation.

The research results are useful in providing education for the communities living in Mentawai and the surrounding areas.

By understanding the map, he added, people do not need to move, but manage to settle with the safe building construction that can minimize the impact of the tsunami.

"The important information is not the time of the earthquake, but the fact that Mentawai and the other hemisphere have plates that are constantly moving and have collision potentials," Taponnier said.

Earlier, the US Consulate General in West Sumatra, Robert Y Ewing, said MEGA-TERA research project is aimed to detect the potential earthquakes that will occur in Mentawai and the waters of West Sumatra.

The early detection is useful for the community living in Mentawai and West Sumatra to anticipate every potential disaster.

There are possibilities that the earthquake and tsunami in 1883 will again take place in West Sumatra, therefore a research has to be carried out, Taponnier said.

(T.KR-LWA/a014)

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