U.S. tsunami warning system, reeling from funding and staffing cuts, is dealt another blow

Source: NBC News

Nov. 8, 2025, 6:00 AM EST


Nine seismic stations in Alaska are set to go dark this month, leaving tsunami forecasters without important data used to determine whether an earthquake will send a destructive wave barreling toward the West Coast.

The stations relied on a federal grant that lapsed last year; this fall, the Trump administration declined to renew it. Data from the stations helps researchers determine the magnitude and shape of earthquakes along the Alaskan Subduction Zone, a fault that can produce some of the most powerful quakes in the world and put California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii at risk.

Losing the stations could lead Alaska’s coastal communities to receive delayed notice of an impending tsunami, according to Michael West, the director of the Alaska Earthquake Center. And communities farther away, like in Washington state, could get a less precise forecast.

“In sheer statistics, the last domestic tsunami came from Alaska, and the next one likely will,” he said.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/science/tsunamis/tsunami-warning-system-loses-alaska-earthquake-stations-rcna242182