Honduras signs tsunami warning agreement with CTBTO

On 30 September 2022, the Republic of Honduras signed a tsunami warning agreement with the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), enhancing the country’s technical capabilities to issue faster and more precise safety warnings.
 
The event was marked by a signing ceremony at CTBTO’s headquarters and was attended by Ricardo Salgado, Honduras’ Minister of Strategic Planning, José Manuel Matheu, the Minister of Health, Lesly Amalia Sanchez Moncada, the chargé d'affaires of Honduras to United Nations in Vienna, and Executive Secretary Robert Floyd.
 
Under the Agreement, the Ministry of Risk Management and National Contingency of Honduras (la Secretaría de Gestión de Riesgos y Contingencias Nacionales, COPECO), will receive, analyse, and coordinate data from the CTBTO’s seismic and hydroacoustic stations that monitor underwater and underground round-the-clock, using cutting-edge technologies.
 
“Signing a tsunami warning agreement strengthens the CTBTO's cooperation and partnership with Honduras and provides further benefits from the Organization's state-of-the-art monitoring network, which can identify earthquakes or other seismic events that could cause a tsunami,” said the CTBTO head, Floyd after the ceremony.
 
The move brings the number of CTBTO’s tsunami warning agreements to 20 with 19 countries.
 
Since March 2005, the CTBTO has been providing near real-time and reliable data to tsunami warning centres around the globe. The countries that benefit from this data are Australia, Chile, France, Greece, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Madagascar, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Portugal, Russian Federation, Spain, Thailand, Türkiye, and the United States of America – which has two centres in Hawaii and Alaska.
 
The data come from around 160 International Monitoring System (IMS) stations in high tsunami risk areas. As well as their core purpose in monitoring for possible nuclear tests, IMS data can provide a wide range of important civil and scientific benefits. Other examples include tracking the movement of radioactivity in the event of a nuclear accident and providing the basis for scientific research into topics ranging from whale behaviour to climate change.