an why wasn't there a warning system in the indian ocean before?
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It works by having anchored buoys that report constantly on wave heights. Computers look for patterns across several buoys, looking especially for long period waves that are traveling at high speed.
There was no warning system in the Indian Ocean because the system was installed by rich countries to protect their harbor facilities and shipping around the Pacific Ocean and the countries around the Indian Ocean are much poorer and have less industrial shipping and facilities.
Whether there was less risk in the Indian Ocean generally, as exposed to an extreme but occasional event like the one that killed so many people, is a debating point. Also, the Indian Ocean is much smaller, warning time is much less.
There was no warning system in the Indian Ocean because the system was installed by rich countries to protect their harbor facilities and shipping around the Pacific Ocean and the countries around the Indian Ocean are much poorer and have less industrial shipping and facilities.
Whether there was less risk in the Indian Ocean generally, as exposed to an extreme but occasional event like the one that killed so many people, is a debating point. Also, the Indian Ocean is much smaller, warning time is much less.