PTWC Media & Visitor Information

Visiting PTWC

• Media and Foreign Nationals:
  Please contact Delores Clark, NOAA Public Relations Officer: delores.clark@noaa.gov 1-808-532-6411.
  
  
• Local Citizens and Other Visitors:
  Please contact PTWC at 1-808-689-8207.
  Note: Due to the limited size of PTWC's facilities, visitor groups should be limited to 15 or fewer persons.

News

• Obama Administration Officials to Hold Ocean Policy Task Force Public Meeting in Hawaii (September 29, 2009)
  The Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force, led by White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Nancy Sutley is charged with developing a recommendation for a national policy that ensures protection, maintenance, and restoration of oceans, our coasts and the Great Lakes. It will also recommend a framework for improved stewardship, and effective coastal and marine spatial planning.
  
  
• Indian Ocean Tsunami Tests NOAA's New Forecast System (August 2009)
  On August 10 at 12:56 p.m. PDT, a 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck the Indian Ocean. It happened near the Andaman Islands, north of the epicenter of the Dec. 26, 2004, earthquake that triggered a tsunami that killed a quarter of a million people. That's when the scientists at NOAA's National Weather Service Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) sprang into action to create a fast and accurate tsunami forecast.
  
  
• NOAA Scientists Find Tsunami "Shadow" Visible from Space (July 2009)
  For the first time, NOAA scientists have demonstrated that tsunamis in the open ocean can change sea surface texture in a way that can be measured by satellite-borne radars. The finding could one day help save lives through improved detection and forecasting of tsunami intensity and direction at the ocean surface.
  
  
• 2009 Tsunami Awareness Month Calendar of Events (March-April 2009)
  
  
• NOAA Raises Tsunami Awareness (April 2009)
  From sea to shining sea, we love our beaches. In fact, 53 percent of the nation's population lives in a coastal county. But along with the enjoyment offered by coastal living and vacationing comes personal responsibility to prepare for unique hazards that exist in coastal areas, such as tsunamis.
  
  
• Exercise Pacific Wave 08 (28-30 October 2008)
  On 28 October 2008, the Pacific Tsunami Warning System conducted an international tsunami response exercise called "Pacific Wave 08."
  
  
• 2008 Tsunami Awareness Month Calendar of Events (March-July 2008)
  
  
• NOAA Launches Final Two Buoys to Complete U.S. Tsunami Warning System (March 2008)
  NOAA deployed the final two tsunami detection buoys in the South Pacific this week, completing the buoy network and bolstering the U.S. tsunami warning system. This vast network of 39 stations provides coastal communities in the Pacific, Atlantic, Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico with faster and more accurate tsunami warnings.
  
  
• What's Your Tsunami Preparedness? (December 2007)
  Millions of people around the world live in areas at risk for tsunamis, such as Hawaii, Alaska, the U.S. and Canadian coasts, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and India. And millions more visit these places every day. Would you know what to do in the event of a tsunami?
  
  
• NOAA Advances its Tsunami Warning Capability (December 2007)
  It's been nearly three years since the magnitude 9.0 earthquake off the coast of Sumatra Island caused a massive tsunami across Indian Ocean coastlines. An estimated 300,000 people perished in eight countries, focusing world attention on the reality and destruction of tsunamis.
  
  

Media Resources

• Please see the collection of tsunami-related maps, drawings, photos, animations, statistics, and websites compiled on the ITIC website.