Accurate tsunami warning thanks to marine vessels

While the Kilo Moana research vessel was on its way from Hawaii to Guam in February 2010, the Maule region (Chile) was attacked by an 8.8-magnitude earthquake. A few minutes later, a tsunami came ashore, devastating coastal towns and causing extensive damage to San Diego (USA).

>>>GPS can alert tsunamis faster than today

Although the waves are only about 9.4cm offshore, thousands of miles from the earthquake center, the Kilo Moana scientists still detect tsunamis using the ship's GPS measurement system.

From this case, the researchers claim, a network of commercial vessels, if equipped with similar tools, will be able to help make tsunami warnings effectively across the globe.

A network of commercial ships will be able to help alert tsunami with high accuracy.

'Our research shows that a network of cruise ships traveling on the sea every day can become a very accurate tsunami induction network,' said University of Hawaii-Manoa expert James Foster on LiveScience.

Currently, the tsunami warning is mainly based on the information gathered from the network of wave gauges (located on land) in conjunction with the underwater pressure sensor system. Based on these data, people will judge where and how strong the tsunami is. However, these systems are sparsely allocated and maintenance and operation is very expensive. In fact, nearly 30% of underwater pressure sensors were broken after the Chile earthquake, so the tsunami disaster could not be detected afterwards.

In contrast, the mobilization of commercial ships equipped with GPS technology to measure small tsunami is not very expensive, Foster analyzed. His team estimates that this type of ship network will be able to detect 2010 tsunami in Chile within an hour. Early warning will help people have more time to evacuate.

'If we can equip our fleet of state-of-the-art GPS systems and satellite communications, we will build a dense, low-cost global tsunami network that saves hundreds of thousands. Foster concludes.