Background

  Indonesia is one of the most seismically active countries in the world and they

are frequently attacked by severe earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Earthquakes,

such as the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman Earthquake (M9), the 2006 Yogyakarta

Earthquake (M6.3), and the very recent of March 2007 Solok (Padang) Earthquake

(M6.3), occur frequently and cause destructive disasters. It is very important to

prevent these disasters in Indonesia.

  Despite great efforts, the short-term earthquake prediction has not been

achieved in the world. The electromagnetic anomalies related to earthquakes have

been reported recently. In the last fifteen years, an international intensive research

in the new science field of seismo-electromagnetics has been carried out in many

countries such as Japan, Russia, Taiwan, China, Greece, France, Italy, India, Mexico,

and USA even after the termination of the Japanese Earthquake Frontier Projects on

Seismo Electromagnetics (NASDA’s Earthquake Remote Sensing Frontier Project,

and RIKEN’s International Frontier Research Project on Earthquakes, IFREQ).

  Furthermore, in June 2004, France launched a seismo-electromagnetic (SEM)

observation satellite (DEMETER) based on the fact that disturbances in the

electromagnetic environment and ionosphere related with earthquakes were

frequently observed. It is important to make research for contributing to the

resolution of the generation mechanism of seismo-EM phenomena through a joint

analysis of DEMETER data and ground -based data on geomagnetic, geoelectric and

ionospheric disturbances.

  The bilateral project “Ground-based monitoring of seismo-electromagnetic

signals in Indonesia” between Indonesia and Japan started in 2005. The project

aims at establishing a center for integrating the data from ground-based observation

network and growing up young scientists in Indonesia.

For more information please contact with the Workshop Committee.

Dr. Djedi S. Widarto, Chairman (LIPI)

Dr. Sarmoko Saroso, Secretary (LAPAN)

Fax. +62-22-2504593 (LIPI)

Fax. +62-22-6014998 (LAPAN)

E-mail: widarto@geotek.lipi.go.id

dswidarto@yahoo.com

sarmoko@bdg.lapan.go.id

s_saroso@yahoo.com

Dr. Katsumi Hattori, Co-Chairman

Department of Earth Sciences

Chiba University

Yayoi, Inage, Chiba 263-8522, Japan

Ph. +81-43-290-2801

Fax. +81-43-290-2859

E-mail: hattori@earth.s.chiba-u.ac.jp