PMEL Programs and Plans
Accomplishments in FY 96 and Plans for FY 97
Figures (a) Real-time tsunami reporting system for early detection of tsunamis
and for assessing and forecasting the threat tocoastal communities, and
(b) Tsunami amplitudes produced by a remotely-generated teletsunami near Shikotan Island,
northeast of Japan.
Tsunami Project
Accomplishments in FY 96
The PMEL Tsunami Project seeks
to mitigate tsunami hazards to Hawaii, California, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska
through research aimed at improving operational products. Research efforts involve
three tightly coupled programs: instrumental, observational, and modeling. These
programs are designed to improve our fundamental understanding of tsunami generation,
propagation, and inundation
dynamics. The project is also involved in the application of this research to
hazard mitigation. Two of these applications involve development of improved
site-specific tsunami inundation maps and a real-time
reporting tsunami measurement system.
Field work during FY 96 included two oceanographic cruises to recover and
redeploy bottom pressure
recorders (BPRs) in the tsunami monitoring network. In addition, a coastal
and Pacific island tide gauge dataset was collected for each of five small tsunamis
generated in FY 96, and a deep ocean BPR time series of the February 17, 1996,
Irian Jaya event was acquired off the U.W. west coast.
A report was published on the successful
test deployment of a real-time reporting tsunami measurement system off
the U.S. west coast.
A report was published on subtidal bottom pressure fluctuations at Axial
Seamount, off the West Coast. These fluctuations are part of the background
oceanographic signals upon which tsunamis occur, and also provide important
information about barotropic processes in the vicinity of the Juan de Fuca Ridge.
Two reports were published that compared in-situ water level measurements, including BPR time series, with satellite altimeter sea level estimates. This work demonstrates the utility of Tsunami Project BPR measurements to studies of low-frequency sea level phenomena.
The Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Implementation Plan was completed in April 1996,
and the first year funding of $2.375 million was appropriated to implement the plan as requested.
A proposal to the Defense Advanced Research Projects, entitled the Early Detection and Forecast of Tsunamis, was completed in August, and funding of $500K was approved for the first year tasks.
Tsunami Project
Plans for FY 97
- Maintain Tsunami Project network of observational stations.
- Deploy real-time tsunami deep ocean measurement system in Gulf of
Alaska.
- Establish near-real-time system for the collection and archiving of
Hawaii coastal sea level data.
- Develop June 10, 1996, field observations database.
- Implement and test tsunami numerical models for Pacific Disaster Center.
- Convene meeting of Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Federal/State Working
Group.
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