Tag: tsunami

Interview with James Foster from the University of Hawai James Foster is a researcher at the University of Hawaii who has recently worked with a team of scientists to look into early warning systems for tsunamis by using GPS. His team recently published their research into how commercial shipping vessels can help with the early detection of tsunamis, which was then picked up by various news networks and bloggers across the world. We are lucky enough this week to have an interview with James, where he tells us a bit more about the GPS tsunami detection research as well as what plans him and the team have in the future for this application and other GPSinitiatives.1. Hi James, and thank you for agreeing to be interviewed by GPS Bites. We are really interested in your research into GPS tsunami warnings, and wondered if you could give our readers a brief introduction to your role in the study?Hi GPS Bites. The study came about quite serendipitously: I had just gotten funding to upgrade the GPS systems on our research vessel, the Kilo Moana, in order to use it for marine geodetic studies.When the news of the Chile earthquake and tsunami came ...

How a vessel in port should react to an incoming tsunami NYK has drawn upon the lessons learned from the tremendous tsunami damage sustained by vessels after the Great East Japan Earthquake in March of last year to create tsunami-response guidelines for ships in port. The guidelines, the first to be developed for Japan, were presented on May 23 at a meeting hosted by the Japan Institute of Navigation.The guidelines detail how a vessel in port should react to information about an incoming tsunami, particularly by giving top priority to preserving life and then minimizing damage to the vessel hull and port facilities. The guidelines will be provided as a reference material to assist ship masters in their decision-making process during their review of the circumstances at the time and the changes likely to be caused by the incoming tsunami.For the development of the guidelines, vessel-mooring simulations were carried out to better understand the mooring limits of vessels in port during the onslaught of a tsunami. Limits were established based on the simulation results and information maps for tsunami disaster prevention and mitigation published by the Japan Coast Guard in August 2011. Also, on the premise that it would be ...

Almost 70 % of the debris swept to sea by last year's tsunami has sunk Bottles, plastic foam and floating buoys are just a few of the scattershot items washing ashore in Alaska, part of a wave of debris surging toward U.S. shores from the March 2011 earthquake in Japan, CNN reports."In the past we would find a few dozen large black buoys, used in Japanese aquaculture, on an outside beach cleanup," Patrick Chandler of the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies told Agence France Presse. "Now we see hundreds."Officials estimate almost 70 percent of the debris swept to sea by last year's tsunami has sunk, but that remaining 30 percent has begun showing up on Canadian and American shores in the last few months. In April 2012, a Japanese child's soccer ball turned up in Alaska, a ghost ship had to be sunk, and a lost Harley Davidson washed ashore on Graham Island off the coast of British Columbia.According to CBS News, one-and-a-half million tons of an estimated five million tons of debris remain afloat. And more than radioactivity, toxicity poses the greatest concern when it comes to wreckage."Think about everything in your garage and imagine that dumping in the ...

UH researchers develop technique for tsunami detection It's quite possible that in the near future a warning of a deadly tsunami could come from a commercial ship.The findings and technology of this is being done at by scientists at UH Manoa.The discovery of sea surface height changes during a tsunami accurately being detected by GPS on a ship came as a surprise.The UH research vessel, Kilo Moana, was on its way to Hawaii from Guam when a tsunami was generated by the 8.8 earthquake in Chile back in February 2010.The Kilo Moana is equipped with an advanced GPS system and the data it recorded mirrored the tsunami predictions from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.Dr. James Foster and his colleagues are now working on developing a network of commercial ships equipped with the geodetic GPS system that could become the next phase in real-time tsunami warning in the Pacific."there are so many ships out there that if you've got enough of them instrumented with the GPS systems there is always going to be some ships in the neighborhood of the region that produces the tsunami," said Foster.Much more advanced than a handheld GPS, the unit on a ship would include a ...

Mariners transiting North Pacific Ocean should be aware of the debris The Maritime Administration (MARAD) issued an advisory reminding mariners transiting the North Pacific Ocean between Japan and the US West Coast of the debris field resulting from the tsunami on Honshu, Japan in 11 March 2011.Some possible marine debris types include derelict vessels, fishing nets and floats, lumber, cargo containers, and household goods. Because different debris types move with currents and winds differently, the debris may be dispersed over a very broad area.Source: MARAD

Pacific Tsunami Warning Center warns A tsunami watch declared after two major earthquakes off the coast of Indonesia's Aceh province has now been cancelled, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PWTC) says.Two hours after the quakes - one with a magnitude of 8.6, the other measuring 8.3 - the centre says "the threat has diminished or is over for most areas".The alerts caused panic as people fled buildings and made for high ground.There have been no immediate reports of damage or casualties.India, Thailand and Sri Lanka have also lifted their own tsunami warnings.The region is regularly hit by earthquakes. The Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 killed 170,000 people in Aceh alone and some 250,000 around the region.The US Geological Survey (USGS), which documents quakes worldwide, said the first Aceh quake was centred at a depth of 33km (20 miles), about 495km from Banda Aceh, the provincial capital.It was initially reported as 8.9 magnitude but was later revised down to 8.6 by the USGS. Quake officials said a tsunami had been generated and was heading for the coast of Aceh.The BBC's Karishma Vaswani in Jakarta says there were reports of the ground shaking for up to five minutes.A PTWC alert said that ...

Japanese "ghost ship" The U.S. Coast Guard, firing repeated machine-gun blasts from one of its cutters, on Thursday scuttled an abandoned Japanese "ghost ship" that had been washed out to sea near Alaska by last year's devastating tsunami.The derelict fishing vessel Ryou-Un Maru, which posed a threat to other marine traffic, sank at about 6:15 p.m. local time (0215 GMT on Friday), nearly five hours after the Coast Guard first opened fire on the ship, Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Kip Wadlow told Reuters."It's confirmed," he said. "The vessel has been sunk and is no longer a navigational hazard in the area."The cutter crew sent the Ryou-Un Maru to the ocean floor with a series of blasts from a 25mm machine-gun, firing intermittently on the drifting vessel for about an hour, then pausing as the ship caught fire and listed in the sea. The barrage resumed after a two-hour break, and the boat was underwater about two hours later.The ship's Japanese owner has said it had no plans to salvage the vessel, and Wadlow said it had been slated to be scrapped even before it was swept away by the tsunami. The Ryou-Un Maru was among the 1.5 million tons ...

Japanese fishing vessel spotted adrift off the west coast of Canada A Japanese fishing vessel swept away by the March 2011 tsunami has been spotted adrift off the west coast of Canada.An aircraft patrolling the seas off British Columbia saw the 15m (50ft) vessel floating 275km (170 miles) from the Haida Gwaii islands on Friday.It is believed to be the first large item from the millions of tonnes of tsunami debris to cross the Pacific.No-one is believed to be on board the ship, registered in Hokkaido, Japan.

Wave of 1.5 million tons of debris heading toward North America An empty Japanese fishing boat drifting off the coast of western Canada could be the first wave of 1.5 million tons of debris heading toward North America from Japan's tsunami last March.The wreckage from flattened Japanese coastal towns - including refrigerators, washing machines, televisions, roofs and fishing nets - is heading inexorably east across the Pacific and could arrive sooner than expected, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration."The early indication is that things sitting higher up on the water could potentially move across the Pacific Ocean quicker than we had originally thought," said Nancy Wallace, director of NOAA's Marine Debris Program, which had forecast the appearance of tsunami debris on North American shores only in 2013."Those higher-wind, quicker moving items may actually be onshore much sooner - pretty much now."On March 20, Canada's transport department spotted what it said was an empty Japanese fishing vessel 150 nautical miles south of the Queen Charlotte Islands, adjacent to the main coast of British Columbia.The ship has been declared a hazard to shipping, but Canada has not said what - if anything - it will do with it. The ...

Japan Tsunami Debris Are Degrading Into Tiny Bits Of Plastic One year after a massive tsunami ravaged the east coast of Japan, much attention is focused on the bottles, refrigerators and other debris washed out to sea and its pending arrival on the U.S. West Coast -- endangering ships, seabirds and other wildlife along the way.Some experts, however, are more concerned about the debris we may never see but that might still pose a threat to human health."Over long periods of time, big plastics degrade into smaller and smaller particles, and these may create an additional route of exposure to certain chemical contaminants," said Courtney Arthur, a scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Marine Debris Program.As sunlight and waves break down plastic materials into pieces the size of fish food, new research suggests that fish may mistakenly eat the so-called microplastics and subsequently absorb chemicals into their bodies. Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and dioxins, among other toxins, could then travel up the food chain and onto our dinner plates.These pollutants have been linked to everything from hormone problems to neurological disorders to cancer in humans.So far, microplastic debris -- generally defined as particles less than one millimeter wide, or ...