Israeli Invents Tsunami Warning System

Although many Israeli inventions stem from military challenges, as has been seen a number of times in this article, most Israeli inventors are not connected with the army at all. A case in point is Israeli inventor Meir Gitlis, who has been creating contraptions of all sorts since he first made an alarm bell for his bedroom out of a tin can and wire when he was ten years old. As an adult, he often gets requests for inventions which address a specific problem, but many times he still creates things based on his own experiences and observations.

For instance, eight years ago Gitlis experienced an earthquake while on a trip to the US, inspiring him to push forward with an idea he had been contemplating for some time. Within a few short months, Gitlis had turned his idea into reality: a shoebox-size, affordable, early earthquake detector. The device senses subtle pre-tremors which are tell-tale signs of an impending earthquake, while being able to distinguish between such vibrations and other, non-seismic vibrations in the environment. The 20-30 second warning time is sufficient to seek a safe area before the main shock wave hits. After completing the earthquake detector in 1996, Gitlis turned his attention to developing a tsunami detector, as one of his many on-going projects, and recently completed his first working model of the tsunami detector, sending off his patent application in early January 2005.

As is now all too well-known, an earthquake at sea can cause a seismic tidal wave of massive proportions. Of course, there were already competent tsunami detection systems on the market, in which some South-East Asian countries sadly elected not to invest. But in the wake of the tsunami disaster, such systems are on their agenda and Gitlis' has already attracted a number of queries - partly because of his reputation as an inventor, and partly because his system is very cost competitive with other systems. For example, a system of six sensors employed in the Pacific Ocean purchased in 2003 cost $10 million, whereas Gitlis' system of six sensors, which can cover an area of 3,000 km square (or 9 million square km), would cost $675,000. Even if two or three such systems were needed to cover the area of the current Pacific Ocean system, the cost would still be significantly less.

Although one of the reasons for the Tsunami death toll being so high was that countries that had picked up the seismic warnings chose to ignore them, the major problem was that there was no way to communicate the warning across the country or across the region to countries where there were no similar systems. Gitlis' system has the added advantage that it can send out information on approaching tsunamis using conventional modes of communication - even cell phones - so that those people most vulnerable, such as fisherman or those on land in isolated locations or moving vehicles, could still easily be warned hours in advance of a tsunami strike.

Gitlis explains that a minimum of three sensors, which are placed out at sea, monitor the speed, height, and direction of passing waves. If a wave is determined to be of tsunami proportions, the sensors transmit a warning signal to a set of three sensors which are situated on the coast which is in danger. These coastal sensors are then programmed to send out a warning message to whatever phones or computers are part of the service, giving relevant information including the expected time of the tidal wave's arrival.

Thus, the system obviates the need for constant human monitoring, as all “subscribers” of the system would be automatically notified. It thus has the potential to save thousands, if not tens of thousands of lives, in the future.

Links

Israeli invents early earthquake warning system the size of shoebox:
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Israel+beyond+politics/Israeli+invents+
earthquake+warning+system+2-Jan-2005.htm

Israeli inventor of home earthquake warning system invents tsunami warning system:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/
Printer&cid=1105586371854&p=1062388728918
Inventor Meir Gitlis was interviewed by the author of this article (Robert Klein) on the morning of January 14th, 2005.

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