The next time you visit a Pacific Ocean beach, you may find a new addition to the signs that warn of dangerous undertows and rip tides. The blue-and-white signs show a person running from a giant wave. The message: "Tsunami hazard zone. In case of earthquake, go to high ground or inland."
Tsunami is the Japanese name for renegade sea waves up to 100 feet high that are generated by earthquakes or landslides. And the person on the sign is likely out of luck trying to outrun the wave looming behind him. While the waves don't maintain their 500 mph top speed on shore, the pace of 30 mph to 50 mph is more than humans can do on foot.
That's why the federal government and the states of California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska and Hawaii want to improve the technology used to detect tsunamis and increase public education. "We know that we're due for a big one," said George Crawford, earthquake program coordinator for Washington state's emergency management division.
Over the past century, there has been an average of one damaging tsunami per year in the Pacific basin, with a 100-year toll of about 70,000 people. But the threat has taken on new urgency with evidence in the past 15 years that a coastal earthquake zone from Northern California to British Columbia is capable of generating giant quakes that could send tsunamis crashing ashore in a matter of minutes.