Korea is located near an active earthquake zone with nearby Japan the source of many earthquakes. With the recent events in South Asia it made me wonder if Korea is vulnerable to a tsunami and if the government could warn its citizens of a tsunami in enough time for an evacution to take place before it would strike. Just imagine the devestation a tsunami would have in a city like Pusan if no warning was given to the people there.

Here are a couple of great graphics that show how tsunamis are formed.

Could Korea be hit by one of these tidal waves? With a little research I found out that Korea has actually been hit by two tsunami in recent history. One in 1983 and another in 1993. This site offers an in depth analysis of the tsunami that struck the eastern coast of Korea near the ports of Samchuk and Imwon.

Tsunamis generated by earthquakes along the Japanese coast on the possible boundary between the Eurasian and the North American plates have caused significant damages to the Japanese and Russian coasts, and damage to the Korean coast as well. For example, at noon on the 26th May 1983, a huge earthquake occurred in the northern coast of Akita and the accompanying tsunami attacked the eastern coast of Korea, after propagating over the in the Japan (East) Sea. Especially at the Imwon port, the most significant damage; two persons killed and twenty houses damaged, was reported.

With Korea regularly vulnerable to tidal waves, does the government have a system in place to warn citizens of potential danger? Judging by the reaction to the 1993 tsunami it appears Korea does have a good early warning system in place.

In the case of 1993 Okushiri Tsunami , the JMA (Japan Meteorological Agency) processed data in the very quick way and issued tsunami warning within 5 minutes after the quake. However, it was just the propagation time of the first wave to southern tip of Okushiri Island and to Ota Bay on southwestern Hokkaido that left no time for evacuation and for any other preparedness measures.

Tsunami Warning Center in Yuzhni-Sakhalinsk (Russia) issued warning within 20 min for the coast of Primorie, Sakhalin and South Kurile Island. The first wave came to Primorie in about 50 to 70 minutes with maximum observed run-up height of 4 meters.

The Korea Meteorological Administration issued a Tsunami Warning signal 33 minutes following the earthquake origin time putting into mobilization of 7,000 disaster personell. The waves propagated to Korea in approximately 100 min which allowed enough time for preparedness activities to be accomplished.

Korea does have an early warning system in place but the early warning system is dependent on how close the originating earthquake is to the coast line. In the case of the 1993 quake Korea was able to issue an advisory in 33 minutes and the wave struck over an hour later. This was enough time to evacuate the affected areas to prevent casualties.

It is probably safe to assume Korea has an even better system in place by now and should be able to serve up a public advisory in half the time. But it would not matter if the tsunami originated near the Korean coast line and struck the coast in under 15 minutes. This should be warning to people here in Korea that if they feel an earthquake they should immediately take tsunami precautions because the warning may not reach you in time. Judging by past events it is unfortunately a possibility.

Picture from the 1993 tsunami

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