Jenette Ross
Biology 1610-008
Dr. Micaela A. Gazdik-Stofer
20 February 2017
In 2011, there was an earthquake near Japan that caused a tsunami. This tsunami was the cause of major devastation, not only from the direct deaths caused by the wave, but also because of the deaths caused by the nuclear power plant in Fukushima that was destroyed by the wave. Japan’s location is a prime spot for tsunamis to form because of several active volcanos on the bottom of the ocean line the coast of the islands of Japan. The two main causes of tsunamis are earthquakes and volcanos. Every time a volcano erupts, or collapses on itself, it poses high threats for the formation of tsunami waves.
Due to devastation caused by the tsunami six years ago, scientists focused on the underwater volcano “Nishinoshima” to find a way to predict tsunamis. Nishinoshima is 1000km off the coast of Tokyo and frequently erupts. They developed a robot that would ride waves and keep watch on the volcano. It is wirelessly connected to a Vector TsunaMeter (VTM), which rests 4000m below the water’s surface and monitors water pressure with an electromagnetometer. Early prototypes of the wave-riding robot faced complications of sinking, or being tossed around in the waves. Some were lost and later found when fishermen caught them in their nets. This brought them to develop the Wave Glider, which corrects these issues they faced. It is virtually unsinkable, can course correct itself to remain above the VTM, runs off energy generated by wind and solar power, can withstand typhoon-force winds, can avoid approaching ships, brings itself to port when it needs maintenance checks, and sends an email to the scientists if it is in any trouble.
The Wave Glider works by floating above the VTM, which measures disturbances in the magnetic and electric fields around it. It then communicates with the Wave Glider that transmits the tsunami threat through an acoustic communication device, which sends the warning through satellite messages. Information received by the Wave Glider takes three to four minutes to receive, giving a fair warning to those in harm’s way. The tsunami of 2011 took 30 minutes to reach shore, so if they had warning sooner, they would have had well over 20 minutes to evacuate and reduce how many people it would have affected.
Each Wave Glider costs about $180,000, which is ten times less than other methods used to detect tsunamis earlier. Buoys require anchors thousands of meters below the surface and are connected with a strong wire. Setting one in place requires a large crew and ship to deploy. Wave Gliders, on the other hand, can be launched from a small boat and bring itself in for maintenance checks, making it much more affordable to use.
Scientists have tested the Wave Glider and were successful in detecting the tsunami threat caused in 2014 when an 8.2 earthquake struck Chile. It predicted a micro-tsunami, and gave warning nearly 20 minutes before the wave touched the coast. Because of its success, scientists are looking to launch the Wave Glider officially for use in May 2017. If it proves effective, they will continue to produce more Wave Gliders to warn more coastal cities of potential danger from tsunami waves.
I chose this article from Scientific American because I have always been fascinated by the ocean, and remember not only when the earthquake that caused the tsunami in Japan they discussed in this article, but also the 2004 tsunami that struck India and other coastal countries lining the Indian Ocean on Christmas Day. Looking back to the details of the Indian Ocean tsunami, there were many warning signs that it was coming along the coast, yet many tourists disregarded the warning signs, and lost their lives because of it. Even by having as much warning as possible for these kind of waves, it will not prevent all deaths from occurring when they strike, but the counts will be lowered as technology develops and those in regions marked to be affected by tsunami threat listen to the warnings and move further inland towards safety. It is exciting for me to see new developments in oceanic studies and ways to help prevent catastrophic events from hurting more people.
Source: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/aquatic-robot-braves-volcanoes-and-typhoons-to-detect-tsunamis/
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