Singapore scientists to assess tsunami risk

A team of 10 scientists from Singapore's Nanyang Technological University (NTU) will conduct a month-long sea expedition from Saturday to assess tsunami risks near the western coast of Indonesia.

The region west of Sumatra is considered by earth scientists to be a high-risk zone, known to have produced tsunami-spawning earthquakes, including the one in December 2004 that claimed over 230,000 lives in 14 countries.

The assessment team will include scientists from NTU's Earth Observatory of Singapore, and the university's research institutes that study geological phenomenon such as earthquakes, reported the Straits Times on Tuesday.

The research project is in collaboration with the Schmidt Ocean Institute, an American non-profit group focusing on oceanographic research, on board its 83-metre-long research vessel, "Falkor".

The expedition is jointly led by NTU, Paris Institute of Earth Physics (Franceâs Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris) and the Indonesian Institute of Sciences.