What's New
– Global propagation animation of Tohoku tsunami (YouTube)
– Underwater Microphone Captures Honshu, Japan Earthquake (YouTube)
On March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9.1 megathrust earthquake struck off the coast of Japan. Violent tremors lasted for about six minutes, shifting the main island of Honshu up to eight feet east and triggering a massive tsunami that reached heights of up to 133 feet.
The earthquake and tsunami, which traveled up to six miles inland and then washed back out to sea, resulted in over 18,000 dead, including several thousand victims who were never recovered. Damage has been estimated at over $220 billion, ranking it as the costliest natural disaster in world history.
As the Tokohu tsunami raced across the Pacific basin, a real-time tsunami flooding forecast model developed by researchers at the Pacific Marine Environmental... more
PMEL in the News
PMEL/GOBOP, Scripps Ocean Institute and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution received the Fund for Science and Technology Award from Paul G. Allen Philanthropies for expanding Deep Argo float research.
Understanding how Alaska’s vast marine ecosystems are changing requires long, consistent records — something scientists have rarely had access to in one place.
A specialized plane, camera and a crew of four are in Alaska to understand the ecosystems of the Bering and Chukchi seas. UW CICOES / NOAA PMEL scientist Jiaxu Zhang, the ArcticAIR project lead, is quoted.
Feature Publication
A researcher with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory collects samples from Sequim Bay, Washington that will be analyzed for total alkalinity and dissolved inorganic carbon measurements during the February 2025 alkalinity release experiment. Credit: Nick Ward, PNNL
Carefully enhanced wastewater could one day benefit coastal marine resources
The continual rise of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere isn't just changing weather patterns, it's also silently altering the chemistry of the global... more