TSUNAMI warnings could reach vulnerable coastlines within minutes, thanks to an early-warning system that gauges how long an earthquake rumbles.
Most tsunami-warning systems work by measuring an undersea earthquake’s magnitude, because those above magnitude 7.5 are considered highly likely to generate a tsunami. However, it takes at least 30 minutes to measure this accurately.
Previous studies have shown that quakes that shake for a long time are more likely to produce a tsunami. Now Anthony Lomax, a consultant seismologist based in Mouans-Sartoux, France, and Alberto Michelini of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in Rome, Italy, have developed…
