The Tsunami Warning System
http://www.geophys.washington.edu/tsunami/general/warning/warning.html
An international effort to save lives and protect property
The following material is excerpted from Tsunami! The Great Waves
* Overview of the Tsunami Warning System
* Tsunami Warning Centers
* Tsunami Watch and Warning Determination
* Tsunami Warning Dissemination
Overview of the Tsunami Warning System
The Tsunami Warning System (TWS) in the Pacific, comprised of 26
participating international Member States, has the functions of monitoring
seismological and tidal stations throughout the Pacific Basin to evaluate
potentially tsunamigenic earthquakes and disseminating tsunami warning
information. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) is the operational
center of the Pacific TWS. Located near Honolulu, Hawaii, PTWC provides
tsunami warning information to national authorities in the Pacific Basin.
Tsunami Warning Centers
As part of an international cooperative effort to save lives and protect
property, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA)
National Weather Service operates two tsunami warning centers. The Alaska
Tsunami Warning Center ATWC) in Palmer, Alaska, serves as the regional
Tsunami Warning Center for Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and
California.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Ewa Beach, Hawaii, serves as the
regional Tsunami Warning Center for Hawaii and as a national/international
warning center for tsunamis that pose a Pacific-wide threat. This
international warning effort became a formal arrangement in 1965 when PTWC
assumed the international warning responsibilities of the Pacific Tsunami
Warning System (PTWS). The PTWS is composed of 26 international Member
States that are organized as the International Coordination Group for the
Tsunami Warning System in the Pacific.
Tsunami Watch and Warning Determination
The objective of the PTWS is to detect, locate, and determine the magnitude
of potentially tsunamigenic earthquakes occurring in the Pacific Basin or
its immediate margins. Earthquake information is provided by seismic
stations operated by PTWC, ATWC, the U.S. Geological Survey's National
Earthquake Information Center and international sources. If the location and
magnitude of an earthquake meet the known criteria for generation of a
tsunami, a tsunami warning is issued to warn of an imminent tsunami hazard.
The warning includes predicted tsunami arrival times at selected coastal
communities within the geographic area defined by the maximum distance the
tsunami could travel in a few hours. A tsunami watch with additional
predicted tsunami arrival times is issued for a geographic area defined by
the distance the tsunami could travel in a subsequent time period.
If a significant tsunami is detected by sea-level monitoring
instrumentation, the tsunami warning is extended to the entire Pacific
Basin. Sea-level (or tidal) information is provided by NOAA's National Ocean
Service, PTWC, ATWC, university monitoring networks and other participating
nations of the PTWS. The International Tsunami Information Center, part of
the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, monitors and evaluates the
performance and effectiveness of the Pacific Tsunami Warning System. This
effort encourages the most effective data collection, data analysis, tsunami
impact assessment and warning dissemination to all TWS participants.
Tsunami Warning Dissemination
Tsunami watch, warning, and information bulletins are disseminated to
appropriate emergency officials and the general public by a variety of
communication methods.
* Tsunami watch, warning and information bulletins issued by PTWC and ATWC
are disseminated to local, state, national and international users as well
as the media. These users, in turn, disseminate the tsunami information to
the public, generally over commercial radio and television channels.
* The NOAA Weather Radio System, based on a large number of VHF transmitter
sites, provides direct broadcast of tsunami information to the public.
* The US Coast Guard also broadcasts urgent marine warnings and related
tsunami information to coastal users equipped with medium frequency (MF) and
very high frequency (VHF) marine radios.
* Local authorities and emergency managers are responsible for formulating
and executing evacuation plans for areas under a tsunami warning. The public
should stay-tuned to the local media for evacuation orders should a tsunami
warning be issued. And, the public should NOT RETURN to low-lying areas
until the tsunami threat has passed and the "all clear" is announced by the
local authorities.
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http://www.geophys.washington.edu/tsunami/intro.html
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Acknowledgments
http://www.geophys.washington.edu/tsunami/background/acknow.html
This World-Wide Web site was originally developed in 1995 by Benjamin Cook
while he was a master's student in the Department of Civil Engineering at
the University of Washington. Developmental support was provided by the
people and organizations acknowledged below. The site is currently
maintained by Catherine Petroff, a professor of civil engineering at the
University of Washington; the site is hosted by the Department of Earth and
Space Systems' WWW server.
Organizations
C&C Visualization Lab at the Locke Computer Center
Technical support for this project was provided by C&C Visualization Lab at
the Locke Computer Center, University of Washington.
National Science Foundation
Funding for Mr. Cook's East Java tsunami survey expenses was provided by the
National Science Foundation.
U.S. Department of Defense
Funding for Tsunami! 's development has been provided by the U.S. Department
of Defense, through the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate
Fellowship Program that generously supported Mr. Cook's graduate study and
research.
People
Eddie Bernard
Dr. Bernard, Director of the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory,
provided advice and encouragement during the formative stages of Tsunami! 's
development.
Frank Gonzalez
Dr. Gonzalez, an oceanographer at the Pacific Marine Environmental
Laboratory, offered valuable input on Tsunami! 's content.
Samuel Herschbein
Many Macintosh-related computer questions were answered by Samuel Herschbein,
the software engineer for Department of Bioengineering at the University of
Washington.
Fumihiko Imamura
Runup data presented in the East Java tsunami survey section have been
provided by Dr. Imamura, who also offered encouragement and suggestions on
the development of Tsunami!
Bruce Jaffe
Dr. Jaffe provided the 1995 East Java tsunami survey images and captions
presented in the East Java tsunami survey section.
Daniel McCrumb
Mr. McCrumb, a graduate student in the Department of Geology at the
University of Washington, developed the case studies presented in the
"Survey of Great Tsunamis" section.
Ronald Nece
As a member of Mr. Cook's Master's Advisory Committee, Dr. Nece offered many
helpful suggestions that enhanced both the presentation and content of
Tsunami!
Catherine Petroff
As the Chairman of Mr. Cook's Master's Advisory Committee, Dr. Petroff
provided much-appreciated guidance throughout Tsunami! 's development.
Gegar Sapta Prasetya
Damage data presented in the East Java tsunami survey section were provided
by Mr. Prasetya, who offered Mr. Cook much encouragement on the development
of Tsunami!
Nobuo Shuto
Dr. Shuto of the Disaster Control Research Center at Tohoku University in
Japan provided many of the superb animations available through Tsunami!
Dennis Sigrist
Dennis Sigrist, former acting Director of the International Tsunami
Information Center, supplied the information on tsunami hazard mitigation
and the tsunami warning system.
Bill Steele
Bill Steele, the University of Washington's Seismology Laboratory
Coordinator, provided beneficial input on Tsunami!'s content and
presentation.
Costas Synolakis
Mr. Cook's interest in the development of an on-line, interactive,
tsunami-information resource was stimulated by several conversations that
Dr. Synolakis and he had during the summer of 1994 concerning the production
of a multimedia documentation of the East Java tsunami survey.
Harry Yeh
Mr. Cook's interest in tsunamis stems directly from the exposure to tsunami
research he got while working for Dr. Yeh as an undergraduate research
assistant at the University of Washington. Dr. Yeh also provided funding
through the NSF that allowed him to participate in the 1994 East Java
tsunami survey.
http://www.geophys.washington.edu/tsunami/background/acknow.html
SOMEBODY WAS ASLEEP AT THE SWITCH!!! AGAIN!!!
The National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program
The National Tsunami Hazard Mitigaton Program is a Federal/State partnership
program designed to reduce the impact of tsunamis through: hazard assessment
...
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