Researchers have shown that, by using global positioning
systems (GPS) to measure ground deformation caused by a large underwater
earthquake, they can provide accurate warning of the resulting tsunami in just
a few minutes after the earthquake onset. For the devastating Japan 2011 event,
the team reveals that the analysis of the GPS data and issue of a detailed
tsunami alert would have taken no more than three minutes. The results are
published on 17 May in Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, an open
access journal of the European Geosciences Union (EGU).