RENO, Nev., June 28 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say NASA-funded technology can determine within minutes whether an earthquake is big enough to generate a tsunami.
A team of University of Nevada-Reno and Northwestern University scientists, along with Nevada state researchers have demonstrated a large quake's true size can be determined within 15 minutes using the NASA technology, which takes advantage of Global Positioning System data. That is much faster than current methods.
"Tsunami warning is a race against time," said study co-author Seth Stein from Northwestern's Department of Geological Sciences. "Tsunamis travel at jet speed, so warning centers must accurately decide, within minutes, whether to issue alerts. This has to be done fast enough for the warning to be distributed to authorities in impacted areas so they can implement response plans."
"We'll always need seismology as the first level of alert for large earthquakes, and we'll need ocean buoys to actually sense the tsunami waves," said Geoffrey Blewitt of Nevada's Geology and Seismological Laboratory. But, he added, GPS can quickly tells how much the ocean floor moved, and that information can directly set tsunami models into motion.
The study appears in Geophysical Research Letters.
