Experts warn of possible earthquake over next few days

BANGKOK, April 12 (TNA) - Japanese and Thai seismic experts have warned of a possible powerful earthquake over the next couple of days, which could cause a tsunami and affect six southern Thai Andaman provinces especially Ranong Province located closest to a fault line. The warning came on Thursday from Japanese seismic expert Michio Hashizume and Thai seismic expert Thanawat Jarupongsakul, Chief of Unit for Disaster and Land Information Studies at the Faculty of Science of Bangkok-based Chulalonkorn University, in a joint press conference. Michio noted that Wednesday’s strong quakes in Indonesia's Sumatra Island were close to the one that had happened in 2004 and caused a tsunami in Thailand, but the powerful earthquakes did not cause severe damages because they made horizontal crustal movements over 20 meters under the earth surface, similarly to what happened in Japan last year; so, there can be similar earthquakes on other locations along the fault line over the next few days, probably in India's Nicobar Islands, where there are undersea volcanoes. Thanawat cautioned that an earthquake near the Nicobar Islands could cause a tsunami directly to the six southern Thai Andaman provinces, including Phuket, Phang-nga, Krabi, Trang, Ranong and Satun, as the islands are not far from Ranong and a tsunami could reach Ranong's coast in half an hour. Thanawat said that concerned agencies should, therefore, keep people in the tsunami-prone areas on alert, insisting that the April 11 earthquakes on the Sumatra Island might trigger another powerful tremor in the region in the near future. (TNA)