Free Republic

PUNE: Could the colossal death and destruction caused by Sunday's tsunami in the Andamans have been reduced by heeding the repeated warnings issued to the Andaman and Nicobar administration by a Pune-based seismologist as early as August 2004? Following five earthquakes that shook the Andaman and Nicobar islands on July 29, ranging in magnitude from 5.0 to 5.9 on the Richter scale, Pune-based seismologist Arun Bapat had written to the Lt. Governor of the islands stressing the necessity of "seismic surveillance and earthquake awareness in the Andamans". In his email of August 2, 2004, to Lt. Governor Ram Kapse,...

INDIA's last active volcano, in the Andaman and Nicobar islands, has erupted in the aftermath of the earthquake that set off tsunamis killing thousands of people, official sources said today. People have been evacuated from Barren Island since the eruption began on Tuesday night and there are no reports of injury. Lava was flowing out of the rim of the crater, which towers above the Indian Ocean, the sources said. Tourists used to visit by boat and the island has a police station. The volcano, known as Barren 1, is located 135km north-east of the capital Port Blair and last...