PTWS 50th - International Tsunami Symposium 2015

Making the Pacific Ready for the Tsunami Threat

20-21 April 2015, NOAA Daniel K. Inouye Regional Center
Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam JBPHH), Ford Island, O’ahu, Hawai’i

Download group photo HERE (5.88 MB)

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the International Tsunami Warning System in the Pacific, the IOC of UNESCO, International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) and its Tsunami Commission, and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) organized the Symposium "Making the Pacific Ready for the Tsunami Threat" to recognize the achievements of the last 50 years, review the current state of the System, and identify practical and tangible next steps, desirable partnerships, and necessary commitments needed to sustain and evolve the PTWS for the future.

Altogether, 150 participants from 30 countries attended. Over 40 speakers representing 19 countries recounted the achievements of the last 50 years, stated and reviewed the current state of the System, and identified and recommended practical and tangible next steps, desirable partnerships, and necessary commitments needed to sustain and evolve the PTWS for the future. The goal of the Symposium was to “look back so we can look forward.” Sessions featured keynotes from long-standing countries, the history of the PTWS, and the PTWS Medium-Term Strategy (MTS) themes of Risk Assessment and Reduction, Event Detection, Warning, and Dissemination, and Awareness and Response. Thematic sessions consisted of speakers and panels representing decision-makers, planning and policy, science, warning, and/or emergency operations practitioners.

In addition to the Plenary session, there were 33 posters and / or extended Abstracts submitted. A peer-reviewed Special Volume on the Pacific Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System: Past, Present, and Future is planned. During evening poster sessions, tours of the PTWC and ITIC spaces, a demonstration of tsunamis visuals projected in three-dimensions on the NOAA Science of the Sphere, and numerous tsunami event, awareness, and education videos were shown.

Two products were specially produced for the PTWS 50th anniversary and briefed to the Symposium. A PTWS video “Tsunami Warning!” was produced by the ITIC, in collaboration with the USA and Chile. The video follows the tsunami warning chain after a M9.5 earthquake and tsunami off the northern coast of Chile. The video is available on the ITIC web site, and the PTWC and UNESCO YouTube sites, as well as in hard disk. The ITIC and NGDC, along with many experts, published the PTWS Commemorative Historical Book, “Pacific Tsunami Warning System, A Half-Century of Protecting the Pacific, 1965-2015” recounting the establishment and evolution of the PTWS over the last 50 years. The book is available in hard copy to all Member States.

Symposium Meeting Documents