Pages
Stay In Touch
More
(c) Copyright Touchstone Consulting Group
Caribbean, International Partners Hone Tsunami Warning System
Enhanced seismic networks, tide gauges improve regional hazard detection
This is part two of a series about the tsunami early warning system in the Caribbean
By Cheryl Pellerin
Science Writer
Washington ― Frequent Caribbean earthquakes and concern about tsunamis prompted the island nations, the UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) and neighbors, including the United States, to build on local experience with hurricanes and volcanoes to establish a regional warning system for tsunamis and other coastal hazards.
While no warning system can prevent naturally occurring hazards like earthquakes and storms, having an early warning system can minimize the loss of life and destruction that accompanies these hazardous events, giving people time to prepare.
The effort began in 2005. Today, the islands are protected by real-time seismic stations for detecting earthquakes, three deep-ocean detection systems (DARTs) for tsunami waves, and a growing number of stations for monitoring sea level. By the end of the year, the United States with the University of Hawaii Sea Level Center and the Puerto Rico Seismic Network will have installed 11 more sea-level stations in the region.
After the magnitude 9.0 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami that took 230,000 lives in 2004, the U.S. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has helped enhance the Caribbean’s warning capacity, Jenifer Rhoades, tsunami program manager for NOAA’s National Weather Service, said in a recent interview.
With the U.S. Geological Survey [USGS], she said, “we enhanced the seismic network in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and we are working with the USGS and other international partners to enhance the seismic capability elsewhere in the Caribbean.”
With IOC oversight and coordination, and technical and financial help from many nations, initial seismic and tsunami warning systems are in place in the Pacific and continue to be improved in the Indian Ocean, the northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean, and the Caribbean.
