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By VERONICA MANUK
THE submarine volcano located on Ritter Island between West New Britain
and Morobe province is likely to generate a huge tsunami in the near
future.
This is the concern of the Morobe provincial government and other
maritime provinces like West New Britain, Manus, Madang, East New
Britain and New Ireland during the National Disaster Conference in Lae
last week.
According to Manus provincial administrator Wep Kanawi, who is the
chairman of the Resolution Committee, the submarine volcano has the
potential to generate a huge tsunami if it erupts.
He said Ritter submarine volcano was active.
Mr Kanawi also revealed that there was no monitoring equipment located
on the island to measure the seismic activities in order to be fully
aware of what was happening there.
The Rabaul Volcano Observatory acting assistant director Herman Patia
confirmed that there was no monitoring equipment on Ritter Island.
He said according to history, Mt Ritter experienced a big eruption in
March 13, 1888, which generated a huge tsunami, where it was believed
many lives were lost that time.
He said the volcano collapsed but became active again in 1972, 1974 and
March 19 this year.
Mr Patia said because of what was discussed during the conference, the
Morobe provincial administrator Manasupe Zurenuoc had instructed one of
the senior officers with RVO to provide costing for the purchase of the
equipment.
He said from experience the equipment would cost about K20,000-K30,000.
The three resolutions passed during the conference were;
l For the Government and donor agencies to purchase seismic monitoring
equipment for Ritter Island and other active and dormant volcanoes in
the maritime provinces;
l National Disaster Office to secure funds and form a team to conduct
disaster awareness, especially on tsunami in all the maritime provinces;
and
l To get more scientific and qualified people on sites to monitor
volcanic activities.
 
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