Thankfully, the latest news reports indicate that a feared tsunami generated by a massive earthquake in Japan has been minor. (The good fortune has already spawned good-natured questions and pointed sarcasm.) Here’s a roundup of recent tsunami-related news and resources from Network World’s archives and other sources:
From the Christian Science Monitor — Japan’s false alarm showcases tsunami alert system: “A powerful undersea earthquake prompted tsunami warnings Wednesday for Japan, Russia, and Alaska, but it was a false alarm. Only a series of tiny waves hit the northern Japanese coast. Still, the event served as a useful test of Japan’s sophisticated early warning system and of its civil defense emergency procedures designed to speedily remove people from low-lying coastal areas.”
The information and warning systems didn’t always work flawlessly, Japanese officials acknowledge.
Here’s the Web site for the National Weather Service’s Tsunami monitoring center.
Today’s news from Japan was timed well for the new al-Jazeera English network:
Here’s what it looked like if you were watching the reports on TV in Japan.
Coincidentally, The New York Times yesterday wrote of scientific conjecture that: “… A large asteroid or comet, the kind that could kill a quarter of the world’s population, smashed into the Indian Ocean 4,800 years ago, producing a tsunami at least 600 feet high, about 13 times as big as the one that inundated Indonesia nearly two years ago. …”
Tsunamis Prompt Interest in ‘Net alerts: “Imagine this scenario: Minutes before the recent Indian Ocean tsunami crashes into Sri Lanka or Thailand, the cell phones of people lying on the beaches there start to ring and a short text message issues a warning to flee to higher ground.”
European experts develop models to predict tsunamis earlier: “London: A group of European experts has reportedly developed several models that could predict tsunamis well in advance This pan-European approach to disaster prevention was taken up at the recent Euro-Margins Conference in Bologna, Italy.”
BT develops low-cost tsunami warning system: “BT has developed a low-cost sea monitoring technology that can be used to alert coastal communities of approaching floods or tsunamis.”
PC Hard Disk System Warns of Tsunamis: “Governments seeking inexpensive technology to warn of tsunamis could be interested in a free software application that monitors vibrations in the hard disks of computers in an attempt to detect the undersea earthquakes that cause tsunamis.”
In the trenches for tsunami victims: “What follows are dispatches from K.C. Tomsheck, senior director of IT at CDW, during his summer visit to Thailand as part of a Habitat for Humanity effort to help tsunami victims.”
Researchers explore link between tsunamis and outer space: “After the devastation of the Aceh tsunami nearly two years ago, Australians have a clear idea of what a tidal wave can do. But imagine a mega tsunami, a wave 10 times bigger than the Aceh event. A group of scientists from the US, Australia, Russia, France and Ireland have been working on a theory that such mega tsunamis may happen, not every half a million years as astronomers had predicted, but every couple of millennia.”
Broadcasting Group Calls for Asia-Pacific Emergency Warning System: “The Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union wants to implement an Emergency Warning Broadcast System in ABU member countries.”
Disaster warning system to be in place by 2007: “PANAJI: An advanced disaster warning system to be developed by Indian Space Research organization (ISRO) – National Disaster Management Support System – will be in place in a year’s time.”
Mapping Technology Helps Direct Tsunami Aid Efforts: “All Things Considered, December 29, 2004 · It’s hard to know how many people are affected when disasters like a tsunami strike remote areas. But a new approach to population mapping called LandScan is improving the ability of relief agencies to estimate how many people need help. NPR’s Jon Hamilton reports.”
