?We should stay in a state of preparedness to take immediate measures. That does not mean that we have to be alarmist.? A well-informed source at the ministry of Environment sums it up: while we have to ensure sensitization about how to react against the potential threat from the sea, research is always welcome in the field of tsunamis. And even if a new interpretation of tsunami hazards by the University of South Carolina stating that the 2004 catastrophe was far from the worst possible in many Indian Ocean borderlands, including Mauritius?, is met with a certain amount of care from our local researchers, ?it encourages us to strengthen our strategy and to stay alert?.

?We are never safe from a disaster. This is why we should cater for the minimization of losses and take into account new contributions?, adds our contact at the Environment. ?Mauritius is not near the hotspots of tectonic activity, that cause 90% of tsunamis like the one in Indonesia, but on December 26th 2004, the giant wave even reached our coasts. We are ready now with our early warning system.?

Vulnerable sites

Mauritius has now a tsunami committee, which is in high priority, since it falls directly under the supervision of the Prime minister. And the fine tuning is being done both on the front of the local Oceanographic Institute, which is completing its mapping of vulnerable sites in coastal regions, and on the international level, where coordination towards a common early warning alert strategy is being set up under the aegis of the United Nations between the different countries of the Indian Ocean rim.

According to a review in ScienceDaily.com (Making accurate predictions of tsunami risks), Costas Synolakis, director of the University of Southern Carolina Tsunami Research Center, and Emile Okal of Northwestern University evaluated all known potential tsunami-generating sources in our area and calculated the impact of tsunamis they could generate, should they rupture. They concluded that the impact on Madagascar, the Mascarene Islands and Seychelles could be far greater than in 2004, particularly from earthquakes in Southern Sumatra and South Java.

?This is not impossible since the rise in sea level can have a multiplication effect on wave height?, underlines researcher Beenay Pathack, who has made contributions concerning the impact of climate changes on weather conditions in the Indian Ocean.

Marine biologist Aurélien Nahaboo has the same prudent stand: ?A more plausible source of tsunami generation would be a giant landslide following volcanic activity in nearby Réunion?. ?This is an extreme scenario?, comments our source from the Environment.

Yet this giant catastrophe is believed to have already occurred in Mauritius, much before the country was discovered by modern history: ?Careful observation of the landscape in the South and South-West finds evidence of that theory?, says a longtime researcher in that field, former Beach Authority president, Gaj Pyndiah. ?The famous coral near Ile-aux-Bénitiers in the lagoon and the other one at Gris-Gris far away from the sea up near sugar cane fields are signs of a huge movement of corals along the south coast of the island.?

Waves over 200 metres

The giant surge coming from Réunion would have taken place some 4,000 years ago when part of the mountain Piton de La Fournaise had a big landslide whereas ?billion tons of basalt fell in the sea, that caused a mega tsunami?. According to Gaj Pyndiah, the tsunami wave ended in Australia and part of Mauritius was hit very hard ?with waves well over 200 meters?. Ile aux-Bénitiers may have been formed from the huge amount of sand deposited at that time. Had they enjoyed a time machine, it is not even sure our most audacious surfers would have welcomed such an event... This brings us to our environmentalist?s opening recommendation: ?I believe that with such calamities, which we are still unable to predict with clear-cut accuracy, we should behave following Murphy?s law: what has to happen finally happens. The important thing is to be prepared and inform people like in the ongoing campaign with schoolchildren in coastal regions.? The tragedy of December 26th 2004 could at least serve as a lesson for international awareness.