Seismic monitoring stations in Alaska are closing after a denied federal grant, risking delayed tsunami warnings for people living on the West Coast.
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.
This is what winning looks like?
A NOAA grant for about $300,000 each year had supported the stations.
Have a feeling this figure will come up after a disaster.
Doubt it. California, Oregon, and Washington state are at risk, Trump doesn’t give a shit about them.
Considering a megaquake in the northwest would be the single greatest disaster in American history, the knock on effects would force him to give a shit. He’d probably downplay and neglect it till the end of his days, but the economic impact would cripple the nation. If anything could grow regional differences that would allow for civil war and Balkanization, it’s millions of west coast residents dying and the survivors being shafted by the federal government.
That said, the chances of a Cascadia fault line quake during Trump’s administration aren’t that high. A starvation triggering economic depression caused by tariffs, overspeculation into AI, and mass divestment from the US is all but guaranteed.
This is what happens when you sit on your hands during election nights.
