Lý Sơn Islands at risk from quakes, volcanic eruptions

“Construction of a small building only needs ground stability tests, but high-rise buildings must be developed using a deep terrain structure assessment for quake resistance structure plans,” he said.

Volcano forecasts are not yet available in Việt Nam, but Lý Sơn Islands and coastal zones in Quảng Ngãi are marked as the volcanic centre, he added.

Nam said five underwater craters were found in the water off the islands, and two others were seen at Mù Cu Islet. So, possible active volcanoes could impact any construction projects on the islands.

He also said a group of researchers and scientists had found a population of paleontological coral reefs over an area of  二0,000 square metres extending  四00 metres along the coast, northeast of the islands.

It’s a unique complex of fossilised coral – believed to date from  四,000 to  六,000 years ago – on the islands’ coast, he added.

Trần Tân Văn, an expert in geology, said nobody could be sure if volcanoes would become active on Lý Sơn Islands or not, but craters on the islands were identified as young and active volcanoes.

Active volcanoes

World volcanologists believe that if the last eruption of a volcano took place less than  一0,000 years ago, it should be considered an active volcano, which can erupt anytime in the future.

Trần Tân Văn said active volcanoes in Việt Nam might be related to the Manila trench subduction zone (an active convergent plate margin between the East Sea and the northern Philippines).

This means that volcanoes could occur in the coastal central region of Việt Nam in linkage with the active tectonics along the Manila trench.

He said the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment compiled a map on tsunami and earthquakes in the coastal central Việt Nam a few years ago, and only earthquake measurements and a tremor monitoring system were established, but an early quake warning system was not yet built.