|
|
|
 News Around the Republic of Mexico | January 2005 
Mexico, Russia Plan Earthquake-Detecting Satellite
 Associated Press
 Mexico City — Mexican and Russian scientists are going to build a high-technology satellite designed to detect early warning signs for earthquakes, Mexico's Autonomous National University announced Wednesday.
The joint project between the national university, known by its Spanish initials as UNAM, and Moscow State University will be completed and the satellite launched into space in about three years, UNAM said in a news release.
The so-called nano-satellite will weigh 10 kilograms and "will allow the detection of electric and electromagnetic'' elements "with an important potential to detect possible earthquakes in advance,'' the release said.
The project was agreed upon between UNAM Rector Juan Ramon de la Fuente and the director of Moscow State University's Skobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear Physics, Mikhail Panasyuk, in Moscow on Wednesday, UNAM said.
When earthquakes occur, the emission of radon gas modifies the concentration of electrons in the ionosphere, the news release said. It is hoped the nano-satellite will detect that change and send a corresponding signal to a receptor located at UNAM in southern Mexico City.
Three tectonic plates come together off Mexico's Pacific coast and have been blamed for a magnitude-7.8 quake that struck in January 2003 off the resort city Manzanillo; as well as a magnitude-8 quake that killed 49 people in the same region in 1995; and the 8.1-magnitude in 1985 that killed 9,500 people in central Mexico.
Hundreds of smaller earthquakes occur as well in Mexico each year. |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us