Sonardyne tsunami system advanced through partnership

Published by

Stephen Emerson

A Sonardyne tsunami buoy is shipped out to position

Sonardyne has joined forces with MSM Ocean to create an advanced early warning tsunami system.

The subsea technology firm, which is based in Yately in Hampshire, worked with Spanish environmental data measurement specialist MSM Ocean on the warning solution that could save thousands of lives in at risk coastal communities.

The two companies can now jointly provide at-risk coastal nations with a single source of supply of tsunami early warning systems.

The agreement combines MSM Ocean’s expertise in oceanographic measurement buoys, on-board data processing and telecommunications and Sonardyne’s highly precise deep water pressure measurement and acoustic through-water telemetry capabilities.

Together, these allow minute changes in deep water pressure at the seafloor that indicate a tsunami to be reliably detected, triggering a direct alert to national emergency organisations via acoustic and satellite communications, all within seconds.

The tsunami early warning system can be deployed in areas of up to 7,000 m water depth.

Geraint West, head of science at Sonardyne, says, “We have been working closely with MSM Ocean for more than a decade and together we recognised the benefit of providing a fully integrated and supported seafloor-to surface-to shore solution. By formalising our relationship, we can now offer a one-stop-shop for this critical capability to a wider range of coastal communities. Organisations can now approach either company for their remote tsunami early warning system configured to match their exact needs.”

Sonardyne has been supplying integrated Bottom Pressure Recorders (BPRs) configured for deepwater tsunami detection to organisations around the world since 2007.

Combining precise sensing, long-life battery and reliable communications in one easy to deploy and recover instrument, they were developed following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

For the past decade, these have been integrated into MSM Ocean’s buoy-based Tsunami Early Warning Systems, which have been successfully installed along the Pacific coast of South America.

This includes two systems deployed off Ecuador which detected the January 15 tsunami, caused by the Hunga-Tonga submarine volcano eruption, 10,000 km away in the South Pacific. Alerts were raised by MSM Ocean’s buoys with the National Tsunami Warning Center of Ecuador just 35 seconds after the wave was detected by Sonardyne’s Bottom Pressure Recorder.

Stephen Emerson

Stephen Emerson is the Managing Editor of The Business Magazine and is responsible for the publication's print publications and online properties including the newly launched Biz News websites in Hampshire and Dorset. Stephen has been a journalist for 20 years and has worked at local, regional and national publications and led a team which made The Scotsman website one of the fastest growing news sites in the UK with over eight million monthly users. He has a keen interest in technology, property and corporate finance and telling the stories of the people behind the successful firms in these sectors.