caribbean seismic network fact sheet（加勒比地区地震网络简报）（5页）.docVIP

WnXqFact Sheet: Draft 3.2 Improving Earthquake and Tsunami Warning for the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and the Atlantic Coast Summary The great Sumatra Earthquake of December 26, 2004, increased the awareness in the United States to the destructive hazard posed by earthquakes and tsunamis. The United States government, working with international partners, is responding with a real-time system that will significantly improve global earthquake and tsunami monitoring. This report focuses on a collaborative USGS NOAA project to improve monitoring along a major portion of our vulnerable coastal regions, the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. Earthquake and Tsunami Hazard Assessment and Research Seismically active areas of the Caribbean pose a tsunami risk for the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Atlantic coast of North America. Nearly 100 tsunamis have been reported for the Caribbean region in the past 500 years, including 14 tsunamis reported in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. In this time, 30 tsunamis caused significant damage, including reports of as many as 9600 fatalities. During the last 150 years, nearly 2000 deaths are attributed to tsunamis. This represents a loss nearly 5 times greater than in Hawaii, Alaska and the U.S. West coast combined for that time period. Most recently, a magnitude 8.1 earthquake in 1946 just north of the Island of Hispaniola generated a tsunami that killed a reported 1,600 people and was detected as far as Atlantic City, New Jersey. With several hundred million people now living in coastal areas surrounding the Caribbean, and with major earthquakes occurring on average every 50 years, scientists say it is not a question of if a destructive tsunami will occur but when. There is thus a need for a Caribbean tsunami early warning system that services the entire region. There is also a need for increased public education and outreach on the hazards posed by tsunamis and how to re