Today’s faulty tsunami warning is a reminder that tsunamis can happen on the US East Coast, too
On Tuesday morning, phones across the US East Coast, Gulf of Mexico, and in the Caribbean buzzed with a false alarm about a potential tsunami. The warning was a mistake — the result of a technical glitch — but the prospect of a tsunami striking New York City or New Orleans raises the question: how likely is a tsunami in these parts of the US, anyway?
Tsunamis can form when powerful quakes jiggle the seafloor up and down. The magnitude 9 earthquake that struck Japan in 2011, for example, generated waves over 124 feet high. “That’s the monster,” says Chris Popham, lead oceanographer with NOAA’s National Tsunami Warning Center. “That’s the thing we’re most worried about, and the potential for that exists in any number of spots around the…
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