Being home to a world-leading underwater research station is paying dividends for Port Alberni.
The University of Victoria project is based in Port Alberni, and uses the Alberni Inlet as a model for how tsunami waves could affect coastal communities.
Dr. Tania Lado Insua from Ocean Networks Canada said the project is benefiting researchers and emergency officials from Alaska to California
During a presentation to the Alberni – Clayoquot Regional District board yesterday, two Ocean Network scientists described various scenarios of how future tsunamis could affect Port Alberni.
Dr. Lado Insua said they have developed new radar technology they believe will help warn communities when a tsunami is on the way.
She said they’ve already had success with the radar experiment, successfully identifying a small tsunami wave in 2016 that was spawned by a typhoon off the coast of Japan.
The meteorological tsunami arrived here as a 20 cm wave that researchers were able to follow as it came in from offshore
