The Lack of an Early Tsunami Warning System in the Indian Ocean

After finishing our tsunami video today and discovering that there is no Tsunami warning system in the Indian Ocean, I have been wondering, “wait, why isn’t there one?!” According to Douglas A. Wiens, Ph.D., Washington University professor of earth and planetary sciences, one of the major reasons that there is no system in the Indian Ocean is the fact that the region, before the 2004 Indonesia tsunami, hadn't experienced a disastrous tsunami for more than 100 years. The Pacific Ocean, on the other hand, has experienced many tsunamis, and as a result, does have an early warning system. While the Indian Ocean has not been a terribly active region in the past, and early warning data is sometimes unreliable (it has caused many false alarm), Wien stresses that it is vital the regions surrounding the Indian Ocean implement a early warning system because this implementation has the potential to save countless lives.