D-Bone
May 8th '06, 10:47 AM
The powerful earthquake that shook Tonga islanders out of their beds last week and brushed their island with a small, harmless tsunami has underscored the biggest challenge facing any tsunami warning system: Getting the people closest to the epicenter to take action.
In the case of the Pacific island nation, few people, if any, received official warning of a possible tsunami from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) in Hawaii, according to several critical press reports.
However, the same reports overlooked the fact that even the fastest official warnings could not have arrived in time to save lives if Tonga had actually been hit by a killer tsunami, tsunami experts said. It's the same on any islands or coastal areas within minutes ? wave time ? of the epicenter of a tsunami-making quake.
"Even if they had received the warning, it would have been too late ? it takes 10 minutes at best to issue a warning from the onset of seismic recordings at the PTWC," explained Costa Synolakis, a leading tsunami researcher at the University of Southern California
Read More: http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20060508/tongatsunami_pla.html
In the case of the Pacific island nation, few people, if any, received official warning of a possible tsunami from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) in Hawaii, according to several critical press reports.
However, the same reports overlooked the fact that even the fastest official warnings could not have arrived in time to save lives if Tonga had actually been hit by a killer tsunami, tsunami experts said. It's the same on any islands or coastal areas within minutes ? wave time ? of the epicenter of a tsunami-making quake.
"Even if they had received the warning, it would have been too late ? it takes 10 minutes at best to issue a warning from the onset of seismic recordings at the PTWC," explained Costa Synolakis, a leading tsunami researcher at the University of Southern California
Read More: http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20060508/tongatsunami_pla.html