Science of Tsunami Hazards (May 2015)
TSUNAMI WARNING SYSTEM IN THE PACIFIC: Brief Historical Review of its Establishment and Institutional Support
Abstract
The year 2015 marks the 50th anniversary of operations of the International Tsunami Warning System in the Pacific Ocean. The present report describes briefly the establishment of the rudimentary early tsunami warning system in 1948 by the USA after the disastrous tsunami of April 1, 1946, generated by a great earthquake in the Aleutian Islands, struck without warning the Hawaiian Islands and other parts of the Pacific. Also reviewed are the progressive improvements made to the U.S. warning system, following the destructive tsunamis of 1952, 1957, 1960 and 1964, and of the early, support efforts undertaken in the U.S.A., initially by the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics of the University of Hawaii, by the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey and by the Honolulu Observatory - later renamed Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC). Following the 1964 Alaska tsunami, there was increased international cooperation, which resulted in a better understanding of the tsunami phenomenon and the development of a new field of Science of Tsunami Hazards in support of the early U.S. Warning System. Continuous supporting international cooperative efforts after 1965, resulted in the integration of the U.S. early warning system with other early regional tsunami warning systems of other nations to become the International Tsunami Warning System under the auspices of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO for the purpose of mitigating the disaster’s impact in the Pacific, but later expanded to include other regions. Briefly reviewed in this paper is the subsequent institutional support of the International Tsunami Warning System in the Pacific, by the International Tsunami Information Center (ITIC), the International Tsunami Coordination Group (ICG/ITS), the Alaska Tsunami Warning Center (ATWC), the Joint Tsunami Research Effort (JTRE), NOAA’s National Geophysical Center (NGDC), the Pacific Marine Laboratory (PMEL) of NOAA and of the later-established Joint Institute of Marine and Atmospheric Research (JIMAR) and the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) of the University of Hawaii, in close cooperation with scientists at the Pacific Division of the National Weather Service (NWS) of NOAA. Additionally, the present paper reviews briefly the significant supportive roles of the U.S. Geological Survey, of U.S. Universities and of other national and international governmental and of non-governmental institutions. A historical review of the pioneering research efforts in support of the Tsunami Warning System in the Pacific will be provided in a separate paper.
