"Mediterranean Sea is more vulnerable to Tsunamis than the Indian Ocean", says study

Mediterrâneo é mais vulnerável a tsunamis do que Índico, diz estudo

A report on this Monday stresses the fact that the Mediterranean Sea coast is more vulnerable to tsunamis than the Indian ocean, where a tidal wave left more than 300,000 dead in 2004.

The document, titled World Disasters Report, has been drafted by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IRFC, in English)

According to the report, millions of people who spend their vacation or live at the Mediterranean risk being hit by tsunamis.

In spite of the region's vulnerability, the document points that the Mediterranean Sea coast does not have a warning system for tsunamis and that a strong undersea earthquake in the region could have serious consequences.

"With 140 million people living in coastal areas, a large number of tourists and a high-density population in some parts of the Mediterranean, a large tsunami could have devastating consequences.", says the report.

Great efforts have been made to install, the quickest as possible, the technical parts for a tsunami warning system, but progress has been slow and there are limitations to its coverage range.", says the document.

'Worst year'

The report highlights the fact that 2008 was second only to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami in terms of the total number of victims from natural disasters.

Last year, 138.336 people died or were presumed dead because of Cyclone Nargis, in Myanmar, while further 87.476 died as a consequence of the Sichuan earthquake in China.

The document also points out that millions of people around the world were affected by either floods or droughts in 2008.