Republic of Korea Ocean Research & Development Institute (represented by President Gang, Jeong Geuk) and Republic of Korea Meteorological Administration (represented by President Jo Seok Joon) have agreed on collaboration to observe earthquakes in the Korean peninsula region. The two authorities announced that they will perform the mission for 6 months from October 25, 2011 through April 24, 2012 using 4 movable submarine seismometers and 8 movable seismometers in southern part of the East Sea.

Observation results indicate that this area is expected for submarine earthquake, and stationary seismometers will be considered to install. For this purpose, the movable seismometers were installed on October 4 and 5 in East coat and movable submarine seismometers will be installed in East Sea and Uljin area using Weather Sat No. 1 from October 24 through 26.

This co-work by the two entities implies much under the growing fear of possible big scale earthquake in East Sea after the great Japanese earthquake. This study attracts a lot of attention as the existing one of stationary type near the Ulleung-do has been the only submarine typed one so far. The data from this collaboration will be used for studies on frequent earthquake areas, faults to lead to submarine earthquake, and observation environments.

Meanwhile, those movable submarine seismometers were introduced through a international joint research project between KORDI and Taiwan Submarine Earthquake Research Group, and 5 Taiwanese experts are working with KORDI to maintain the systems.