There are already sensors in place, both for ordinary seismic monitoring and nuclear test ban treaty compliance. However, the sensors don't function automatically. People need to monitor the sensors and send warnings. Unfortunately, one such organization was on vacation when their sensors detected the earthquake and didn't send any warnings. They also have to get permission to release the info.

Early on Sunday morning, powerful computers in a Vienna office building received seismic data on the earthquake that spawned the devastating tsunamis across south Asia - information that might have saved lives in the hours between the quake and the waves hitting the coasts of Sri Lanka, India and several other countries.

But the data streaming into the computers of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organization served no purpose Sunday.

The 300 staff are on vacation until Jan. 4. The organization itself is still nothing more than a nascent group of seismic experts and bureaucrats who await signature or ratification on the test ban treaty from 11 more countries before they can officially act.

The organization uses a vast network of scientific equipment set up to monitor nuclear explosions, but as fine a measure of nature's force as devised by the humans who have proven so powerless before it.

A spokeswoman for the organization, Daniela Rozgonova, said Tuesday that she hoped the world would now see the wider uses of the seismic sensors. She said equipment maintained by the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organization could help scientists better understand natural disasters.