A tsunami alert caused by a powerful earthquake like that which occurred near the Russian coast on Tuesday is not necessarily synonymous with great disasters, recall experts in environmental phenomena.
“You hear” Tsunami alert “and, all of a sudden, everyone thinks of the last Hollywood film they saw, until they see a three-foot wave and wonder:” But what is that? “” Relatives the director of the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network, Harold Tobin, in an interview with NBC News on Wednesday.
This sheds light on the recent tsunami alerts launched on Tuesday, among others on the American West Coast and in Hawaii after the strike of a powerful earthquake of magnitude 8.8 in the depths of the Pacific Ocean, off the Russian Kamchatka peninsula.
Although the damage caused by tsunami waves on American soil are considered minimal, Mr. Tobin rejoices on the contrary of the precautions taken by the experts in this regard: “We should consider as a victory that a tsunami has occurred, that an alert has been issued and that the worst scenarios has not arrived,” he explains.
Exaggerated predictions?
In two hours, tsunami’s predictions were produced “for almost the whole Pacific and for the alert points in the United States,” said Tsunami’s modeler for the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, Vasily Titov.
“Our models provided that waves of about 2 meters were going to hit the city of Hillo in Hawaii. They finally materialized at 1.5 meters. This is exactly what we wanted-a little more on the conservative side, ”he explains.
According to the Tsunami modeler and principal researcher at the University of Washington, Yong Wei, the evacuation of the citizens of Hawaii was completely justified despite the minimal extent of the damage.
“If people do not receive a tsunami alert and they remain on the scene at risk, they can certainly be killed by a 2 meter wave. Strong currents can certainly get you to the ocean and people will be drowning, ”he warns.
“I don’t want people to say to themselves:” We received a tsunami alert and nothing happened. So I can ignore it. ” Warnings must be of preventive in nature to avoid the worst, ”he underlines.
