The Alaska Earthquake Center is in negotiations with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to restore funding for nine seismic stations.
In late September, NOAA advised the center it would no longer fund its real-time seismic data flow to the National Tsunami Warning Center, a service the federal organization had been funding for decades.
In a statement in mid-December, a NOAA spokesperson said the federal government was working on a “potential funding mechanism" to maintain the stations. A spokesperson for the Alaska Earthquake Center said they expect to have the funding by mid-January.
Dave Snider, tsunami warning coordinator at the National Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer, said scientists can make better decisions faster with more seismic stations. He said the speed of earthquake detection is key to tsunami detection.
“We are built for speed, so we have to do that part very quickly,” he said. “Our aim is to get that first message out within five minutes of detecting the earthquake.”
Several of the stations listed to go dark are in the Aleutians, a region where large earthquakes are very common as the Pacific plate slides beneath the North American plate.
Snider said the Aleutian seismic stations matter most for nearby coastal communities, where every minute counts when detecting a tsunami.
“For a really strong nearby quake, if there's one that’s happening right along your coastline, it could be immediate,” said Snider.
He said how quickly a tsunami could hit a community depends on the earthquake's strength, depth and exact location.
Snider said losing the nine seismic stations in the Aleutians could delay earthquake detection by up to a minute.
“Earthquake signals travel out and away from that epicenter really quickly,” he said. “So even if there's, you know, one sensor is out in your community, there's going to be another one behind it and another one behind that.”
One of the nine seismic stations at risk of shutting down is in Unalaska, a city of more than 4,000 people, that sits right along the coast, facing the Bering Sea.
Ben Knowles, Unalaska’s fire chief and director of emergency services, said funding is always an issue.
“We want good funding for these agencies that help communities like ours with early warning and early detection that’s extremely important for us,” he said.
When a large earthquake strikes near the Aleutian region, Knowles said, there's a whole process that follows.
“The National Tsunami Warning Center has an entire center of people that are dedicated to monitoring these things,” he said. “We also partner with places like the Alaska Volcano Observatory, the Alaska Earthquake Center, the National Weather Service, and so they all work hand in hand.”
If there is a tsunami threat, Knowles said the city alerts residents through the Nixle system, social media and if necessary, sound sirens. KUCB also broadcasts emergency information on 89.7 FM and KUCB.org.
Alerts are also notified on the FEMA app, at tsunami.gov and through NOAA weather radio.
Whether the Aleutians seismic stations stay on or not, Snider is confident his team can keep communities safe. But the more seismic stations, the merrier.
“There’s always room for more data,” he said. “And any scientist would never disagree with that.”
In the meantime, the University of Alaska Fairbanks is temporarily funding the stations, so that earthquakes in the island region are detected quickly.
