Ending false tsunami alarms:

A ground breaking US research on tsunamis by Nasa scientists could lead to the development of more reliable global warning systems,saving lives and reducing false alarms,which have negative societal and economic effects.The study by Y Tony Song of Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena,California,demonstrated that real-time data from Nasa’s network of GPS stations can detect ground motions preceding tsunamis and reliably predict a tsunami’s destructive potential well before it reaches the coastal areas.Conventional tsunami warning systems depend on estimates of an earthquake’s magnitude to formulate the size of the tsunami.The latest study understands that the earthquake magnitude is not always a reliable indicator of tsunami potential.