Ahoy! New buoy on the way

The new tsunami detection buoy leaves Phuket on the Royal Thai Navy vessel MV Seafdec.

Pictured with the new buoy are NDWC Director Viraya Mongkolveerapan (yellow shirt)

and Deputy Director Somsak Khaosuwan; US buoy experts Jack MacGregor,

Chris Zirkle and Dan Huggins; and Royal Thai Navy Rear Admiral Thaworn Charoendee (right).

PHUKET: A new tsunami detection buoy is on the way to replace the old one located 600 nautical miles northwest of Phuket.

The new buoy, along with the Director of the National Disaster Warning Center (NDWC) and specialists from the US, set off from Cape Panwa aboard the Royal Thai Navy vessel MV Seafdec at 8am.

The 47-million-baht detection buoy replacement mission is expected to take three days.

The old buoy will be lifted out of the water on Friday and the new buoy will be deployed on Saturday.

If everything goes smoothly, MV Seafdec and her crew will be back in Phuket by Sunday.

If successful, the mission will restore Thailand's direct detection capabilities in time for the fifth anniversary of the December 26 disaster.

-- Phuket Gazette 2009/12/15

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I just hope batteries WERE included.

VDO at http://thainews.prd.go.th/newsenglish/prev...hp?news_id=1277 or

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A 47 million baht tsunami detection buoy is being installed in the Indian Ocean to replace the old one installed in December 2006.

The ship taking a new DART 2 Tsunami detection buoy to deploy in the Indian Ocean near the Nicobar Island departed Phuket’s Cape Panwa on Monday with a mission to install the buoy within one week. This new sensor buoy is to replace the original buoys funded by the US government and installed in December 2006. The old ones will be brought back for maintenance as their batteries are dead. The new buoy is purchased under a Thai government fund of 47 million baht. The new buoys need to have their batteries replaced every two to three years. They can detect tremors from earthquakes with a Richter magnitude of four upwards and will transmit signals back to the control tower within five minutes every time they detect a tremor of more than five Richter. The buoys are made of high-density foam and can withstand tremendous pressure. They can detect changes under the sea and send back signals to the control tower within one minute of detecting an undersea change. There are plans to improve the buoys to make them report an earthquake within three minutes of detection in order to increase the time for evacuation of people since tsunamis usually reach the shore about 30 minutes after an earthquake occurs.

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