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British Navy releases photo of underwater landslide that caused tsunami
Mission re-routed
For the crew of HMS Scott, this has been a unique mission. The ship's main role is to map areas of the sea floor, which might have some military relevance.
The sonar array slung underneath its hull sends out pulses of sound waves, which reflect back from hard surfaces; these reflections can be analysed to produce 3D maps of the ocean floor.
HMS Scott was in the western portion of the Indian Ocean near the coast of Madagascar, sailing northwards, when the magnitude nine earthquake occurred.
The UK's Ministry of Defence decided to re-route the vessel eastwards. It docked in Singapore in late January to take on supplies and civilian scientists, from the British Geological Survey and Southampton Oceanography Centre.
After receiving permission from the Indonesian government, HMS Scott then sailed for the earthquake epicentre.
Currently in charge is Lieutenant-Commander Gary Brooks, the ship's Executive Officer.
He told BBC News that his crew knows relatively little about the impacts of the tsunami.
"We've been quite shielded from all this," he said. "We sailed on 27 December, when little news had broken; and being at sea, we have a very closeted life, away from what goes on in the real world, and we haven't seen any of the shocking images.
"We are working some considerable way off the coast, and so we haven't physically seen any devastation or anything else; we're here, we know why we're here, we know what's happened, we know what we're trying to achieve and what we're doing for the future, but we're unaware really of the devastation and the problems that the world has gone through."
HMS Scott is scheduled to return to the UK in April.
Courtesy and Copyright: British Broadcasting Corporation TECHNOLOGY ARTICLES
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