Tsunami Warning System. His warning was not taken seriously, and at least one fisherman was killed. Official tsunami warning capability in the U. The U. In , the WCATWC area of responsibility was enlarged to include the issuing of tsunami warnings to California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia for potential tsunamigenic earthquakes occurring in their coastal areas.
Virgin Islands until June PTWC's staff size has increased from 8 to 15 as a result of the tsunami, and it now staffs the center 24 hours per day everyday.
This earthquake alerted State and Federal officials that a facility was necessary to provide timely and effective tsunami warnings and earthquake information to the coastal areas of Alaska. Congress provided funds in to construct two new observatories and establish a tsunami warning system in Alaska. The first observatory constructed was at the U. The City of Palmer, in the Matanuska Valley 42 miles northeast of Anchorage, was selected as the site for the primary observatory due to its proximity to bedrock for instrumentation and to communications facilities.
Construction of the observatory installations, the task of engineering and assembling the data systems, and the hookup of the extensive telecommunications and data telemetry network was completed in the summer of Originally, the tsunami warning responsibility for Alaska was shared by the three observatories located at Palmer, Adak and Sitka. Sitka, a seismological observatory since , and Fairbanks were the only two seismic stations operating in Alaska in The responsibilities of Adak and Sitka were limited to issuing a tsunami warning for events occurring within miles of their location.
In later years, the responsibility to provide tsunami warning services for Alaska was transferred from the Adak and Sitka observatories to the Palmer Observatory. Sitka and Adak Observatories were eventually closed in the early s, although the seismic instrumentation is still maintained.
