Tsunami Warning System:

On Saturday, February 27, 2010, a magnitude 8.8 earthquake occurred 95 km off of the shore of Maule, Chile. The earthquake was felt in most of Chile and Argentina, as well as parts of Brazil, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay. It produced a tsunami which struck the coastal town of Concepcion half an hour later and is believed to be responsible for much of the deaths and damage. At about the same time, a 40 meter wave hit the San Fernandez Islands, which are located 667 km off the coast of Chile with an approximate population of 700. Neither community received advanced warning.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis (DART) is the most extensive network of tsunami forecasting equipment in the Pacific. Buoys and ocean-floor pressure sensors collect data which is used to model and determine the threat of a tsunami. The nearest DART buoy is located over 1,614 km north of Concepcion, despite a history of strong quakes in Chile (13 at magnitudes of 7.0 or greater since 1973). The buoy did not receive any abnormal data until three hours after the initial tremors. While this data was used to issue a warning to Hawaii, it was obviously much too late to prevent any of the deaths in Southern Chile.

We at M•CAM, Inc, believe that there are inefficiencies in the already deficient tsunami warning systems of the world. We have been working to compile a list of all patented tsunami warning technology with the goal of bringing attention to any open source innovation. The patent literature on these systems is sparse. This can be seen through the patent for the DART system, which was issued in 2007 and cites no prior patent art, despite the fact that there were international disclosures of similar technologies at least as early as 1996. This seems to imply that not enough attention has and is being paid to developing these technologies.
The lack of robust systems directly contributed to the number of lives lost in Chile. The existence of open source innovation for tsunami forecasting makes this all the more frustrating. As an initial step, in an effort to raise global awareness and help prevent future loss of lives, we are making available a list of all patent disclosures and open source technology for use in these systems.

We will be continuing our look into this issue with the goal of bringing far greater transparency and attention to these technologies. We ask anyone with knowledge or experience in the field of tsunami research to join our discussion and help prevent future disasters.

Within the Global Innovation Commons you can learn more about this issue and the open source technology which can solve it. Click HERE