Early warning: United States to deploy 32 more buoys for sensing tsunamis.On Jan. 14, the Bush administration announced a $37.5 million program to expand the nation's tsunami-warning capabilities. The 2-year plan includes placing tsunami-detecting buoys in the Atlantic Ocean Atlantic Ocean [Lat.,=of Atlas], second largest ocean (c.31,800,000 sq mi/82,362,000 sq km; c.36,000,000 sq mi/93,240,000 sq km with marginal seas). Physical Geography Extent and Seas and Caribbean Sea as well staffing around the clock the existing tsunami-warning centers in Alaska and Hawaii. The plan comes on the heels of last month's earthquake-triggered tsunamis that killed at least 160,000 people on shores rimming the Indian Ocean (SN: 1/8/05, p. 19). Currently, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Noun 1. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - an agency in the Department of Commerce that maps the oceans and conserves their living resources; predicts changes to the earth's environment; provides weather reports and forecasts floods and hurricanes and (NOAA NOAA abbr. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Noun 1. NOAA - an agency in the Department of Commerce that maps the oceans and conserves their living resources; predicts changes to the earth's environment; ) operates a six-buoy warning system in the Pacific Ocean (SN: 3/6/04, p. 152). That's where 85 percent of the world's tsunamis occur, but the massive waves are known to have struck every marine region except the Arctic Ocean. Earthquakes, undersea landslides, volcanic eruptions volcanic eruptions discharging of fumes, dust and lava from volcanoes. They have damaging potential in addition to those of being physically overpowering by the lava flow or the ash or dust fallout. , and even meteor strikes can trigger tsunamis. About $13.8 million of the funding announced last week will be spent to procure and install 3:2 pressure sensors on the seafloor to detect passing tsunamis and measure their heights in the open ocean. A buoy near each sensor will relay the information to scientists. Most of the equipment will be installed around the rim of the Pacific, but seven of the buoys will be deployed in the Atlantic and Caribbean, which aren't now monitored for tsunamis. Although tsunamis in those bodies of water are less frequent than in the Pacific, they aren't unknown. On Nov. 1, 1755, waves spreading from three quakes that occurred beneath the eastern Atlantic destroyed Lisbon, Portugal (SN: 1/3/04, p. 14), and inundated in·un·date tr.v. in·un·dat·ed, in·un·dat·ing, in·un·dates 1. To cover with water, especially floodwaters. 2. some areas of several Caribbean islands. In October 1918, a tsunami triggered by a magnitude 7.5 temblor near Puerto Rico killed 40 people there. The proposed system should "provide the U.S. nearly 100 percent coverage" for incoming tsunamis and reduce false alarm rates to nearly zero, says John H. Marburger III of the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy Congress established the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) in 1976 with a broad mandate to advise the President and others within the Executive Office of the President on the effects of science and technology on domestic and international affairs. . Before the current system was installed, three-quarters of tsunami warnings turned out to be unnecessary. About 150 million people live in U.S. coastal areas (SN: 3/27/04, p. 197), and more than 180 million people vacation there, notes Conrad C. Lautenbacher Conrad C. Lautenbacher is the incumbent Under Secretary for Oceans and Atmosphere within the United States Department of Commerce and the eighth administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He was appointed to the position on December 19, 2001. Jr., NOAA's administrator. Other important initiatives in the new plan include procuring, operating, and maintaining 38 new shore-based tide-gauge stations, upgrading 20 seismometers used to measure earthquakes, identifying shorelines along the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico Noun 1. Gulf of Mexico - an arm of the Atlantic to the south of the United States and to the east of Mexico Golfo de Mexico Atlantic, Atlantic Ocean - the 2nd largest ocean; separates North and South America on the west from Europe and Africa on the east that would be particularly susceptible to tsunamis, and boosting community preparedness in coastal areas. Although existing budgets included funding for many of these initiatives, Lautenbacher admitted that last week's proposed acceleration of their implementation wouldn't have occurred but for the horrendous toll of last month's tsunamis in the Indian Ocean. |
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