Wednesday 30 / April / 2025
Muscat: Scientists continue to study the Makran Crack, an 800 kilometre long zone under the coast of the Arabian Sea, to see how Oman and the other nations in its vicinity can better prepare themselves from the seismic activities that occur in its vicinity.
The Makran Crack begins in the Gulf of Oman, just off the northern governorate of Musandam, and extends into the sea just off Iran, all the way to Balochistan, which is part of Pakistan. It is where the oceanic crust of the Earth's Arabian Plate moves under the continental crust of the Eurasian Plate. This often leads to geological activity such as earthquakes, escaping water and gases, and mud volcanoes.
**media[1010187]**
The research was conducted by the Intergovernmental Coordination Group for the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (ICG/IOTWMS), of which Oman is a member. The organisation is under the umbrella of UNESCO.
Dr Juma Al-Maskari, the General Manager of Meteorology at the Public Authority for Civil Aviation's Department of Meteorology said: "Knowing additional information about the Makran subduction zone will help in the early warning systems and know the number of stations and types of monitoring stations to be developed in the region."
In 1945, the most famous earthquake occurred in Makran, resulting in a Tsunami that reached the sultanate coast. The meeting of the Intergovernmental Coordination Group for the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (ICG/IOTWMS) was held in Kish, Iran. During the meeting, the participants praised the efforts of the Sultanate in practical exercises to deal with tsunamis.
Srinivas Kumar Tomala, Secretary General of the International Coordination Group for Early Warning added: "The regional exercise for rapid self-evacuation from the tsunami is very important and it was implemented every two years in the Indian Ocean region."
He added: "the last exercise in 2018 saw the evacuation of 116,000 people with the participation of 11 countries and Oman was one of these countries where training was conducted in the coasts of Al Batinah Governorate, during the exercise, we tested the readiness of the region to deal with tsunamis."
Video courtesy - GEMPA (Global Earthquake Monitoring Processing Analysis Organisation)
