GEOG 001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 25: Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, Return Period

• School: College of The Sequoias
• Department: Geography (GEOG)
• Course: GEOG 001
• Professor: Moster

Document Summary

First warning of a possible tsunami comes when an earthquake of m 7. 5 or larger happens in an offshore area. Three types of warning systems exist for tsunamis in the pacific ocean. A pacific-wide system (pacific tsunami warning center) Regional systems (west coast and alaska tsunami warning system) All 3 use types of systems use a network of seismographs to provide real- time estimates of earthquake magnitude and location before issuing a tsunami warning. When the source of the tsunami is less then about 100km away, there generally is insufficient time to warn and safely evacuate people, and no warning is possible when a local landslide triggers a tsunami. People close to the source, will probably feel the earthquake and can move to higher grounds. Tsunami watch is a notification than an earthquake that could cause a tsunami has occurred, where a tsunami warning indicates that a tsunami has been detected and is moving across the ocean toward that area.