SEMPORNA: The Malaysian Meteorological Department (MetMalaysia) has been taking the necessary preventive measures to protect the people in Sabah, particularly coastal communities in Tawau and Semporna, from the possibility of tsunamis.
According to a 2020 report by Universiti Malaysia Sabah's Natural Disaster Research Centre, the level of tsunami threat is high in southeast Sabah due to its narrow continental shelf and proximity to tsunami sources in the North Sulawesi Trench.
The paper titled "Assessment of tsunami hazard in Sabah — Level of threat, constraints and future work" was published by Felix Tongkul, Rodeano Roslee and Ahmad Khairut Termizi Mohd Daud.
It provides an overview of the threat of tsunamis to the coastal areas of Sabah based on a synthesis of available literature on the current state of knowledge concerning potential tsunami threats.
"In southeast Sabah, tsunami waves originating from the North Sulawesi Trench due to a magnitude 8.4 Moment Magnitude Scale (Mw) earthquake are predicted to arrive at the coast just after 40 minutes of generation, with wave height up to 3m.
"The narrow continental shelf in this area and its proximity to the tsunami source makes the southeast part of Sabah the region with the highest level of threat."
Given the potential threat, MetMalaysia has developed the Malaysian National Early Tsunami Warning System (SAATNM) which is equipped with earthquake and tsunami detection technology equivalent to other advanced countries.
According to a statement by the department, SAATNM is operated at the National Weather and Geophysics Operations Centre (POCGN) in Petaling Jaya and the Weather and Earthquake Operations Centre in Sabah (POCGS) in Kota Kinabalu.
"It operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and is responsible for issuing earthquake information and early tsunami warnings within eight minutes of an earthquake being detected.
"MetMalaysia has also installed earthquake detection systems (seismological stations) and tsunami detection systems (tide gauge stations and coastal camera stations) in the districts of Tawau and Semporna."
Apart from that, MetMalaysia has also enhanced the capability of early tsunami warning dissemination through tsunami siren stations installed in areas at high risk of such disasters.
The National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma), in collaboration with MetMalaysia and local authorities, has also been consistently organising awareness campaigns and tsunami evacuation drills to raise public awareness of tsunami disaster risks in Malaysia, including in Sabah.