Tsunamis News

April 16, 2024

Top Headlines

New Detection Method Aims to Warn of Landslide Tsunamis

Feb. 21, 2024 — Researchers have devised a way to remotely detect large landslides within minutes of occurrence and to quickly determine whether they are close to open water and present a tsunami ...

Ancient Rocks Improve Understanding of Tectonic Activity Between Earthquakes

Feb. 7, 2024 — Rocks once buried deep in ancient subduction zones -- where tectonic plates collide -- could help scientists make better predictions of how these zones behave during the years between major ...

Self-Powered Movable Seawall for Tsunami Protection and Emergency Power Generation

Jan. 24, 2024 — A movable seawall system, capable of generating sufficient electricity to raise gates and protect ports against tsunamis, has been proposed by researchers. The system has been found feasible in areas ...

Morocco Earthquake Had Unusual Deep Slip, According to New Modeling

Dec. 15, 2023 — In their rapid characterization of the magnitude 6.8 Al Haouz earthquake in Morocco, researchers suggest that the earthquake ruptured roughly 25 kilometers deep beneath the ...

Latest Headlines

updated 1:23pm EDT

Mystery of Volcanic Tsunami Solved After 373 Years

Oct. 26, 2023 — The explosion of the underwater volcano Kolumbo in the Aegean Sea in 1650 triggered a destructive tsunami that was described by historical eye witnesses. A group of researchers has now surveyed ...

Study Shows Long-Term Health Impacts After Exposure to Environmental Disaster

Oct. 16, 2023 — Exposure to a large-scale disaster, such as a tsunami, impacts population health over a decade later. A new study has found that women who lived ...

Researchers Test Seafloor Fiber Optic Cable as an Earthquake Early Warning System

Oct. 17, 2023 — One of the biggest challenges for earthquake early warning systems (EEW) is the lack of seismic stations located offshore of heavily populated ...

How to Distinguish Slow and Fast Earthquakes

July 31, 2023 — Slow earthquakes are slow-slip phenomena that last many days or months, and you barely notice them. In 2007, researchers proposed how the magnitude and duration of earthquakes vary, which can help ...

Creating a Tsunami Early Warning System Using Artificial Intelligence

Apr. 25, 2023 — Researchers develop an early warning system that combines acoustic technology with AI to immediately classify earthquakes and determine potential tsunami risk. They propose using underwater ...

Ridgecrest Faults Increasingly Sensitive to Solid Earth Tides Before Earthquakes

Apr. 21, 2023 — Faults in the Ridgecrest, California area were very sensitive to solid earth tidal stresses in the year and a half before the July 2019 Ridgecrest ...

Turkey's Next Quake: Research Shows Where, How Bad -- But Not 'When'

Apr. 20, 2023 — Using remote sensing, geophysicists have documented the massive Feb. 6 quake that killed more than 50,000 people in Eastern Turkey and toppled more than 100,000 buildings. Alarmingly, researchers ...

Puerto Rico Tsunami Deposit Could Have Come from Pre-Columbian Megathrust Earthquake

Apr. 20, 2023 — Tsunami deposits identified in a coastal mangrove pond in Northwest Puerto Rico could have come from a megathrust earthquake at the Puerto Rico ...

2022 Tongan Volcanic Explosion Was Largest Natural Explosion in Over a Century, New Study Finds

Apr. 14, 2023 — The 2022 eruption of a submarine volcano in Tonga was more powerful than the largest U.S. nuclear explosion, according to a new study. The 15-megaton ...

Earthquake Scientists Have a New Tool in the Race to Find the Next Big One

Feb. 16, 2023 — New research on friction between faults could aid in predicting the world's most powerful earthquakes. Researchers discovered that fault surfaces bond together, or heal, after an earthquake. A fault ...

Looking Back at the Tonga Eruption

Jan. 27, 2023 — A 'back-projection' technique reveals new details of the volcanic eruption in Tonga that literally shook the ...

The Adverse Health Effects of Disaster-Related Trauma

Jan. 4, 2023 — A new study has found that individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely to experience disaster-related home loss, and they are also more likely to develop functional limitations ...

Signals from the Ionosphere Could Improve Tsunami Forecasts

Dec. 12, 2022 — The powerful volcanic eruption in January 2022 created ripple effects throughout the world's atmosphere and oceans. Analysis of the Hunga Tonga eruption shows how signals from the ionosphere ...

Finding Faults Deeply Stressful

Dec. 8, 2022 — Evidence that a complete stress release may have contributed to the 2011 Tohoku earthquake that broke records. Both sedimentary formations above and below the plate boundary fault lie in the stress ...

Exploring the Deep: Drones Offer New Ways to Monitor Sea Floor

Nov. 21, 2022 — Researchers have developed a novel method for measuring the earth's crust on the seafloor. A lightweight geodetic measurement device was mounted on a sea-surface landing unmanned aerial vehicle ...

Water Cutoff Countermeasures Using Disaster Emergency Wells

Nov. 4, 2022 — Groundwater is considered both an environmental and industrial resource, but a new study indicates it is also an important resource in disaster prevention. Researchers conducted research surveys of ...

Violent Supershear Earthquakes Are More Common Than Previously Thought

Oct. 31, 2022 — About 14% of magnitude 6.7 or greater strike-slip earthquakes since 2000 have been supershear. That's 50% more than previously thought. Supershear earthquakes occur when a fault ruptures faster ...

Impact That Killed the Dinosaurs Triggered 'Mega-Earthquake' That Lasted Weeks to Months

Oct. 6, 2022 — Some 66 million years ago, a 10-kilometer asteroid hit Earth, triggering the extinction of the dinosaurs. New evidence suggests that the Chicxulub impact also triggered an earthquake so massive that ...

Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid Triggered Global Tsunami That Scoured Seafloor Thousands of Miles from Impact Site

Oct. 4, 2022 — The miles-wide asteroid that struck Earth 66 million years ago wiped out nearly all the dinosaurs and roughly three-quarters of the planet's plant and animal ...

Edge Waves, Continental Shelf Fueled the 2021 Acapulco Bay Tsunami

Sep. 27, 2022 — Trapped inside the shoreline of a bay, the resonant interactions of a tsunami with regular waves can prolong the tsunami disturbance. For the 2021 magnitude 7 Acapulco, Mexico earthquake and tsunami, ...

Deepest Scientific Ocean Drilling Sheds Light on Japan's Next Great Earthquake

Sep. 23, 2022 — Scientists who drilled deeper into an undersea earthquake fault than ever before have found that the tectonic stress in Japan's Nankai subduction zone is less than expected. The findings are a ...

Wave Created by Tonga Volcano Eruption Reached 90 Meters -- Nine Times Taller Than 2011 Japan Tsunami

Aug. 19, 2022 — New research reveals more about the magnitude of January eruption, as researchers call for better preparedness The eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano in January created an initial ...

Shockwave Caused by Tonga Underwater Eruption May Help Scientists Predict Future Tsunami

July 19, 2022 — Using data from the eruption of the underwater volcano near Tonga in 2022, researchers used disturbances in Earth's upper atmosphere to track the airwaves that cause tsunami. Their findings may ...

Scientists Provide Explanation for Exceptional Tonga Tsunami

June 13, 2022 — Scientists say they have identified the exact mechanism responsible for the exceptional tsunami that spread quickly across the world after the colossal eruption of the Tonga volcano earlier this ...

The Link Between Temperature, Dehydration and Tectonic Tremors in Alaska

June 3, 2022 — No one is at their best when they are dehydrated and that goes for tectonic plates too. Researchers using a thermomechanical model of the Alaska subduction zone indicates that plate dehydration is at ...

Tsunami Threats Underestimated in Current Models

May 26, 2022 — USC researchers have found a correlation between tsunami severity and the width of the outer wedge -- the area between the continental shelf and deep trenches where large tsunamis emerge -- that ...

Hunga Volcano Eruption Provides an Explosion of Data

May 12, 2022 — The massive Jan. 15, 2022, eruption of the Hunga submarine volcano in the South Pacific Ocean created a variety of atmospheric wave types, including booms heard 6,200 miles away in Alaska. It also ...

New Research Could Provide Earlier Warning of Tsunamis

May 12, 2022 — A new method of detecting mega earthquakes, which picks up on the gravity waves they generate by using deep-learning models, can estimate earthquake magnitude in real time and provide earlier warning ...

Space-Based System Using GPS Satellites Could Warn of Incoming Tsunamis

Apr. 28, 2022 — A new method for detecting tsunamis using existing GPS satellites orbiting Earth could serve as an effective warning system for countries worldwide, according to a new ...

Undersea Detector Proves It’s Swell

Apr. 13, 2022 — Highly energetic particles called muons are ever present in the atmosphere and pass through even massive objects with ease. Sensitive detectors installed along the Tokyo Bay tunnel measure muons ...