New Tsunami warning agreement with Madagascar

Madagascar has signed a tsunami warning agreement with the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), strengthening the country’s ability to issue faster and more precise safety warnings in case of a tsunami.

The agreement, which went into force in April 2019, means the Institut et Observatoire de Géophysique d’Antananarivo (IOGA) will receive data from CTBTO’s International Monitoring System (IMS) stations.

With this arrangement with Madagascar, CTBTO now has a total of 16 tsunami warning agreements in 15 countries (the others being Australia, France, Greece, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Portugal, Thailand, Turkey, Russia and the United States). CTBTO has been providing real-time and reliable data on a test basis to tsunami warning centres around the globe since March 2005. The data come from around 100 IMS stations in high tsunami risk areas.

The wealth of verification data have a variety of important civil and scientific applications which – in addition to the CTBT’s verification purpose – could contribute to sustainable development and human welfare. Madagascar hosts two IMS monitoring stations:  Auxiliary seismic station AS061 in Ambohidratompo, and Infrasound station IS33 in Antananarivo.