{"id":1206436,"date":"2023-11-27T09:42:05","date_gmt":"2023-11-27T14:42:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1206436"},"modified":"2023-11-27T09:42:05","modified_gmt":"2023-11-27T14:42:05","slug":"complex-volatile-coast-makes-preparing-for-tsunamis-tough-in-alaska","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1206436","title":{"rendered":"Complex, volatile coast makes preparing for tsunamis tough in Alaska"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \"Tsunami<\/p>\n

Enlarge<\/a> \/<\/span> Damage from the 1964 earthquake and tsunami in Kodiak, Alaska. (credit: Education Images via Getty<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

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On an overcast day in September, Heidi Geagel negotiates familiar potholes on a gravel road in Seldovia, Alaska. Cresting a hill topped with a small chapel, her town spreads out below\u2014in the bay, gently rocking fishing boats; onshore, the Linwood Bar & Grill, the Crab Pot Grocery, and a couple dozen homes on stilts.<\/p>\n

Geagel, Seldovia\u2019s city manager, turns around to three people sitting in the back seat, who partner with the United States\u2019 National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program<\/a> and have traveled in from Anchorage and Fairbanks for a meeting with community leaders about tsunami hazards. She points out how much of the landscape could be underwater if one of the giant, fast-moving waves were to hit: \u201cPretty much the entire map of Seldovia is in the inundation zone, except for this hill.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alaska is uniquely vulnerable to two types of tsunamis. The first, tectonic tsunamis, are linked to the long string of volcanic islands that curves like a tail from the state\u2019s southern tip; these islands mark the northern edge of the Ring of Fire, a geologically active zone that generates approximately 90 percent of the world\u2019s earthquakes. Tracing those islands, deep under water, is the Alaska-Aleutian subduction zone, a trench where vast plates of hard rock overlap and friction slowly builds. Once or twice a year, the subduction zone generates earthquakes<\/a> strong enough to trigger tsunami alerts; every 300 to 600 years or so, it ruptures in a megaquake that sends devastating tectonic tsunamis to Alaska\u2019s shores.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read 43 remaining paragraphs<\/a> | Comments<\/a><\/p>\n


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\nSource: Ars Technica – Complex, volatile coast makes preparing for tsunamis tough in Alaska<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Enlarge \/ Damage from the 1964 earthquake and tsunami in Kodiak, Alaska. (credit: Education Images via Getty) On an overcast day in September, Heidi Geagel negotiates familiar potholes on a gravel road in Seldovia, Alaska. Cresting a hill topped with … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1206437,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,110],"tags":[73],"class_list":["post-1206436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ars-technica","category-unfiltered-rss","tag-ars-technica"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1206436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1206436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1206436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1206437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1206436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1206436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1206436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}