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6 December 2012
Surprising Source of Tsunamis
No one knew what happened when a 7-foot wave hit Lake Erie’s shoreline, sweeping holiday weekend beach-goers off of their feet and swamping boats in their harbors on May 27 of this year. News reporters jokingly called it a tsunami, but explained it was just another wave surge in the wake of windy weather coming from the Canadian border. But it was a tsunami.
5 December 2012
Tsunamis in the sky
High in the sky seems like an unusual place to look for a tsunami, a natural disaster created deep beneath the ocean’s surface. But an international team of researchers is scanning the atmosphere for signs of these hazards. Looking at the sky, they say, could help scientists and emergency response agencies improve warning systems before they see any problems on land.
21 May 2012
Monitoring earthquakes with GPS could yield faster disaster response
When the March 2011 earthquake shook Japan, scientists needed about 20 minutes to conduct a full analysis. But now, researchers have found a way to shrink that critical analysis time for large earthquakes to two minutes. The speedup results from using data from GPS networks for the initial evaluation, rather than readings of seismometers.
23 March 2012
Tsunami preparedness briefing on Capitol Hill stresses disaster education
A year after the tsunami that devastated the Japanese coastline, the United States still needs to ramp up its tsunami preparedness, experts say. Scientists at a March 21 Capitol Hill briefing in Washington, D.C., stressed the importance of detecting tsunamis before they reach coastlines and educating the public on tsunami dangers.
8 December 2011
Drilling to tell a tsunami tale
With several talks at the American Geophysical Union’s Fall Meeting focused on recent tsunamis and earthquakes, it’s easy to believe the next big one is headed towards the California coast RIGHT NOW – even though it probably isn’t. But according to models, an earthquake originating within Alaska’s Aleutian island chain could propel 7-10 meter (20-30 feet) tsunami waves to the California coast. With that possibility looming, a collaborative team is …
1 August 2011
Measuring tsunami remnants half a world away
By the time the waves of the 2004 Sumatra tsunami swept half way across the globe and reached Drake Passage at the Southern tip of South America, they were just ripples.
But two pressure gauges deep below the surface of the passage reacted to those tiny remnants of the once-towering waves, giving scientists a fortuitous opportunity to study the long-distance behavior of a tsunami.
16 December 2010
Strengthening tsunami warning systems
Though it’s hard to imagine a huge wall of water sneaking onshore, tsunamis can catch coastal communities by surprise.
Two posters presented at “NH33A: Transmitting Hazard Science to End Users: What Works, What Doesn’t, and What’s Needed? I” discussed ways to strengthen tsunami prediction and warning that could help save lives.
2 March 2010
A hectic weekend at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center
Brian Shiro is a geophysicist who has been working at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) for over four years. On a normal work day, his tasks go from checking that the warning system works to maintaining the center’s website and working on expanding Hawaii’s seismic network. But last weekend, after a 8.8 magnitude earthquake hit Chile and a Pacific-wide tsunami alert was issued for the first time since 1964. …
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