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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.
Earthquake Early Warning System Possible
Released: 12/14/2009 10:51:48 AM
An earthquake early warning system for California is feasible in coming years, according to research being presented Dec. 14-15 at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco.
The ongoing study demonstrates that an earthquake early warning system for California is possible and lays out how such a system could be built.
Earthquake early warning systems, already successfully deployed in Mexico, Japan and Taiwan, can detect an earthquake in progress and provide notice of seconds to tens of seconds prior to actual ground shaking. Building on developments in other countries with significant earthquake risk, scientists are exploring early warning in the United States.
After a three-year earthquake early warning study funded by the U.S. Geological Survey was completed in August 2009, a second USGS-funded project was launched to integrate the previously tested methods into a single prototype warning system. When completed, this pilot system, called the California Integrated Seismic Network (CISN) ShakeAlert System, will provide warning to a small group of test users, including emergency response groups, utilities, and transportation agencies. While in the testing phase, the system will not provide public alerts.
The CISN ShakeAlert system will detect strong shaking at an earthquake’s epicenter and transmit alerts ahead of the damaging earthquake waves. The speed of an electronic warning message is faster than the speed of earthquake waves traveling through the earth. Potential applications include stopping elevators at the nearest floor, slowing or halting trains, monitoring critical systems, and alerting people to move to safer locations. In warning systems deployed abroad, alerts are distributed via TV and radio networks, the Internet, cell phones and pagers.
More at: http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=2366&from=news_side
