West Coast/Alaska Tsunami Warning Center
Operations Manual
NOAA/NWS/WCATWC
910
South Felton Street
Palmer, Alaska 99645
http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov
Section 1.1: History of the
WC/ATWC
Last Updated: 2/2004
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The Palmer Observatory, under the auspices of the Coast and Geodetic Survey,
was established in Palmer, Alaska
in 1967 as a direct result of the great Alaskan earthquake that occurred in Prince
William Sound on March
27, 1964. This earthquake alerted State and Federal officials that a
facility was necessary to provide timely and effective tsunami warnings and earthquake
information to the coastal areas of Alaska.
Congress provided funds in 1965 to construct two new observatories and
establish a tsunami warning system in Alaska.
The first observatory constructed was at the U.S. Naval Station on Adak
Island in the Andreanof
Islands in the Central Aleutians. The City
of Palmer, in the Matanuska Valley
42 miles northeast of Anchorage,
was selected as the site for the primary observatory due to its proximity to
bedrock for instrumentation and to communications facilities. Construction of
the observatory installations, the task of engineering and assembling the data
systems, and the hookup of the extensive telecommunications and data telemetry
network was completed in the summer of 1967. With the dedication of the Palmer
Observatory on September 2, 1967,
the Alaska Regional Tsunami Warning System (ARTWS) became operational.
Originally, the tsunami warning responsibility for Alaska
was shared by the three observatories located at Palmer, Adak
and Sitka. Sitka,
a seismological observatory since 1904, and Fairbanks
were the only two seismic stations operating in Alaska
in 1964. The responsibilities of Adak and Sitka
were limited to issuing a tsunami warning for events occurring within 300 miles
of their location. In later years, the responsibility to provide tsunami
warning services for Alaska was
transferred from the Adak and Sitka
observatories to the Palmer Observatory. Sitka
and Adak Observatories were eventually closed in the early 1990’s, although the
seismic instrumentation is still maintained and recorded at the WC/ATWC.
In 1973, the Palmer Observatory was transferred to the National Weather
Service’s Alaska Region and changed its name to Alaska Tsunami Warning Center
(ATWC). In 1982, its area of responsibility (AOR) was enlarged to include the
issuing of tsunami warnings to California,
Oregon, Washington,
and British Columbia for
potential tsunamigenic earthquakes occurring in their coastal areas. In
1996, the responsibility was again expanded to include all Pacific-wide
tsunamigenic sources that could affect the California,
Oregon, Washington,
British Columbia and Alaska
coasts, and the name was changed to the West Coast and Alaska
Tsunami Warning Center
(WC/ATWC) to reflect those new responsibilities.
Prior to the establishment of the Palmer Observatory, tsunami warnings were
issued to Alaska by the Pacific
Tsunami Warning Center
in Ewa Beach, Hawaii. The PTWC was established in 1949 after the
devastating tsunami of April 1st
1946 generated in the Aleutian Islands, Alaska.
In 2003, a new Tsunami Warning
Center building was constructed in
the yard of the original WC/ATWC building.
This new facility was the first LEED certified building in the state of Alaska,
and within the U.S. Department of Commerce.
LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification is
granted by the U.S. Green Building Council, and awards environmentally
sensitive construction practices. This
new facility provides upgraded power and communications capability, as well as
office space for other governmental and educational organizations, which will
assure the WC/ATWC will continue to provide quality products to the public.