The estimated 10,000 people killed on the shores of Indonesia no doubt were too close to the epicenter of Sunday's earthquake to be saved by a tsunami early-warning system like the one used in the Pacific Ocean today. But experts say that such a system could have warned people in Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, and on the African coast that the deadly waves were coming.

South Asian officials are calling for the creation of an Indian Ocean warning system, and Japan - home of the world's most advanced tsunami alert system - is offering to help build it.

While most systems can take several minutes to determine if a quake poses a tsunami threat, Japan has developed technology within the past year that can calculate the size, speed, and direction of a nascent tsunami within seconds.

"We know that a tsunami will occur if the [earthquake] magnitude is over 6.3, and that a tsunami will cause damage if it's over 7.0," says Yoshinobu Tsuji, an associate professor at the University of Tokyo's Earthquake Research Institute. "Even in the slowest case, the Japan Meteorological Agency can judge within five minutes if a tsunami will occur."

Japan has an extensive system of 300 earthquake sensors that operate around the clock to relay real-time information to six regional centers. Once a tsunami threat is identified, local government officials nationwide are alerted to sound evacuation alarms and broadcast information on radio and TV. Coastal towns can also shut water gates to prevent waves from heading inland via low-lying river networks.

One of the reasons Japan's system works, says Mr. Tsuji, is "because Japan spends a lot of money on information transmission." He estimates that the country spends $20 million annually on the alert system.

A tsunami that hit the island of Hokkaido in 1993 demonstrated that community education and early warning systems save lives. Though 239 died, casualties were significantly reduced thanks to a timely warning issued by the meteorological agency, and because residents fled to higher ground after feeling the initial temblor.

Along with the US, Japan is one of the founders of the International Coordination Group for the Tsunami Warning System in the Pacific (IGC/ITSU). Established in 1965 after a tsunami struck Alaska, the ITSU early warning system now covers 26 Pacific-rim nations.

"But because the Indian Ocean is separate from the Pacific, there is no information on tsunamis in that area," notes Tsuji. He says that at an ITSU meeting three years ago, the point was made that there was a need for an early-warning system in Indonesia. "The main sticking point for Indonesia was cost and upkeep," says Tsuji.

In June this year, ITSU recognized that a significant threat of both local and distant tsunamis existed in the southwest Pacific and Indian Oceans and recommended that a group be set up to look into tsunami warning devices for countries in the region.

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