U.S. tsunami programs: a brief overview.(Report)

 Contents  Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Tsunami Warning Centers The National Tsunami Hazards Mitigation Program Detecting Tsunamis and Issuing Warnings    Warnings Triggered by the March 11, 2011, Tsunami    The DART Buoy Network    Tsunami Warnings from the Japan Meteorological Agency Funding for the Tsunami Program Additional Reading  Contacts Author Contact Information 

March 18, 2011

Summary

A 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck off Japan's northeast coast near Honshu in the afternoon on Friday, March 11, 2011 (12:46 a.m. eastern time in the United States). The earthquake triggered a tsunami that has caused widespread devastation to parts of the coastal regions in Japan closest to the earthquake. The tsunami traveled across the Pacific Ocean, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) tsunami warning centers in Hawaii and Alaska issued tsunami warnings for coastal areas of Hawaii, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, American Samoa, Alaska, and California. Although the tsunami caused widespread damage along the northeast coast of Japan, tsunami warnings issued from the tsunami warning centers gave the above U.S. Pacific territories, Hawaii, and the U.S. West Coast adequate warning to prepare for incoming waves.

NOAA's National Weather Service (NWS) manages the two tsunami warning centers that monitor, detect, and issue warnings for tsunamis generated in the Pacific Ocean. The NWS operates the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) at Ewa Beach, HI, and the West Coast/Alaska Tsunami Warning Center (W C/AKTWC) at Palmer, AK. The National Tsunami Hazards Mitigation Program (NTHMP) assists states in emergency planning and in developing maps of potential coastal inundation for a tsunami of a given intensity. The goal of NTHMP is to ensure adequate advance warning of tsunamis along all the U.S. coastal areas and appropriate community response to a tsunami event.

The tsunami warning centers monitor and evaluate data from seismic networks and determine if a tsunami is likely based on the location, magnitude, and depth of an earthquake. If the center determines that a tsunami is likely, it transmits a warning message to NOAA's weather forecasting offices and state emergency management centers, as well as to other recipients. The centers monitor coastal water-level data, typically with tide-level gages, and data from NOAA's network of Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis (DART) detection buoys to confirm that a tsunami has been generated, and if not, to cancel any warnings. Shortly after the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean, Congress passed the Tsunami Warning and Education Act (P.L. 109-424), to enhance and modernize the existing Pacific Tsunami Warning System to increase coverage, reduce false alarms, and increase the accuracy of forecasts and warnings, among other purposes. As a result, the array was expanded to a total of 39 DART buoys in March 2008.

Funding for the NOAA tsunami program supports three main categories of activities: (1) warning, such as the activities of the tsunami warning centers and DART network; (2) mitigation, such as the …