Really interesting article (and several great pics) in the February 2012 for those interested in tsunamis and subduction zones (including the one off the Pacific Northwest coast).

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2012/02/tsunami/folger-text

I just finished reading the article....highly recommended. Consider moving to Arizona or Iowa......

NHK did a brief report on the tsunami alert announcer who was killed in the line of action (Miki Endo) and can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6Kl08zHiJY&feature=related

Al Jazeera produced a documentary that described how one school was able to save most of its children by subscribing to a Japanese tradition called "Tendenko". Essentially, it teaches that after a tsunami, you must evacuate yourself to higher ground without regard for your loved ones or others. (The fear being that trying to locate others will get you killed). It is a fairly long documentary but is pretty remarkable. It is a stark comparison to many civil preparedness training programs where it is encouraged to "check on your neighbors".
The documentary can be seen here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wymX0J4G8r8

Here in So.Cal,Tsumami Science is very easy to see.Climb/hike any local mountain of your choice that surrounds the L.A. Basin,scratch around in the dirt a little,"Wow,looky here,Seashells,trylobytes,etc. & I'm way up here on Mt.Wilson a couple thousand feet up this slope,Man that had to be a Huge Tsunami,way back when!Doesn't mean it can't happen again,It's not called a Basin for not,that's for sure!

Those fossils you are seeing were deposited in the seabed several million years ago, most probably during he Miocene era (roughly 15 million years ago) and have risen to their present position as the Pacific Plate has been bumping northward, rubbing against the North American Plate. Geologists are beginning to document pysical traces of tsunamis, as reported in the article. They are a definite fact of life along any coast.

One of the more notable tsunamis in southern California was one in 1812, triggered by an earthquake with an epicenter in the Santa Barbara Channel. The wave reached almost to the steps of the Santa Barbara Mission.

Hikermor has it right. Marine sedimentary rocks which have been uplifed by tectonic forces comprise many of the great mountain ranges of the world. Even Mt Everest is composed of rocks that were once (a very long time ago) deposited under the sea. Paleoseismology, the subset of geology which finds indications of ancient earthquakes, is a relatively recent development. Finding indications of ancient tsunamis is an even younger science. Both have become very important for disaster planning, and for permitting infrastructure development.

The West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center provides tsunami warnings for both the east and west coasts of the US and Canada. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii provides coverage for Hawaii and much of the rest of the Pacific Rim. The Alaska facility is located in Palmer, about 40 miles (64 km) north of Anchorage. I've toured it several times. If by chance any of you are ever in the area, it is well worth a visit. The do a very nice public tour.

Staff are on duty 24/7/365 monitoring a large network of seismographs, tsunami detection buoys, and tide gauges. Typically, the first indication of a potential tsunami is when a large undersea earthquake is detected. They have equipment to rapidly give a preliminary analysis of size, location, and focal mechanism of major earthquakes virtually anwhere in the world. Based on this, the staff makes a rapid estimate of the potential for a dangerous tsunami, and may issue various levels of "Warning", "Watch", etc. One of the staff told me that when the recent Japanese earthquake and tsunami occured, they were on the phone with government emergency agencies before the ground had stopped shaking in Japan. As the tsunami crosses the ocean, tsunami buoys and tide gauges enable the staff to modify or cancel warnings as appropriate. For some more details see their Users Guide.

Of course Alaska itself is prone to large devastating earthquakes. One of the questions I asked is the likelihood that the Alaska Center itself could be knocked out by an earthquake. They said that the center is stoutly constructed to resist earthquakes, and has its own back up power. In the worst case, they have a portable sat phone handy, and could call the Hawaii center to have them take over. Since both centers are tied into the same data network, either one is capable of covering the area of the other, and could issue warnings.

All in all a very interesting place to tour. It is well worth a stop if you are ever visiting Alaska.

They definitely did good work during the Japanese event. In coastal California, we had ample time to prepare and to minimize damage. As it turned out, I was on the south coast of Santa Rosa Island at the time predicted for the arrival of the T-wave. In that location, a fairly open, straight coast, we saw absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. Meanwhile, back in harbor at Ventura, the water was channeled into a narrowing estuary and damage did occur.

Thanks for the tip. If I am ever up that way, i will definitely take the tour.

I'm not a grammar Nazi, but I thought people who might have to use the word 'evacuate' might like to know the controversy behind the term. As the fictional editor from TV show The Wire informs his writer: "A building can be evacuated. To evacuate people is to give them enemas." The clip is available on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5d82ndui_s

This would give a particularly scatological meaning to the following sentence from a previous post in the thread:



On the other hand, this seems a somewhat dated distinction in usage. According to the editor-at-large at Merriam-Webster: "This was indeed a usage controversy until about WWII, by which time the 'remove (people)' sense had taken firm hold. According the MWDEU: 'The respectability of this sense is no longer subject to question.'" See the following article:

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2008/01/the_wire_copyediting_scandal_d.html

Here endeth the lesson.