YOUNG SCIENTISTS SEEK WAYS TO PREDICT NATURAL CALAMITIES
by Leonid Vinogradov

ITAR-TASS News Agency
June 14, 2006 Wednesday 05:33 PM EST

Natural calamities that occurred on Sakhalin and Kuril islands will
be the main subject for discussion at an international conference
of young scientists from Russia, Japan, China, Bulgaria, Iran, and
Armenia. The forum is to be held here from June 15 to 20.

The press service of the Sakhalin-based Institute of Marine Geology
and Geophysics has announced that about 60 scholars will make reports
at the conference. Russia will be represented by scientists from
Vladivostok, Magadan, Moscow, Novosibirsk, Nizhny Novgorod, and
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

Those present will endeavour to work out a system to predict
earthquakes, tsunami oceanic waves, and snow avalanches on the strength
of the study of the natural calamities that occurred on Sakhalin and
the Kuriles.

The 1952 tsunami was the Kuriles’ most terrible natural calamity
that devastated the town of Severo-Kurilsk on Paramushir Island. The
oceanic wave that was 15-18 metres high claimed a toll of more than
2,000 human lives. The 1995 earthquake on Sakhalin made havoc of
Neftegorsk township, killing more than 2,000 inhabitants.