TO:
Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
THROUGH:
David N. Carmany, City Manager
FROM:
Robert Espinosa, Fire Chief
SUBJECT:Title
Proclamation declaring March 24-30, 2013, as Tsunami Preparedness Week
PRESENT
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Recommended Action
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends that the City Council recognize and proclaim March 24, 2013, through March 30, 2013, as “Tsunami Preparedness Week” in Manhattan Beach and encourage all residents to increase their knowledge and awareness of proper safety measures to follow before, during, and after tsunamis.
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FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
There are no fiscal implications associated with the recommended action.
BACKGROUND:
Tsunamis are typically generated by underwater earthquakes - landslides, volcanic activity, and meteor strikes are other known, but less common, tsunami sources. Tsunami generating earthquakes usually occur in subduction zones, such as those found in the Pacific Ocean off the U.S. western and Alaskan coasts. Marked by deep trenches in the seafloor, subduction zones are formed where one of the earth’s outer shell of tectonic plates plunges underneath another. Usually the plates are gradually moving past each other, but friction may temporarily lock them together, causing stress to build up between the plates. Sometimes the stress is relieved suddenly in the form of a large earthquake. As the bottom plate dives farther down, causing the top plate to snap upward, the overlying seawater is disturbed. The size of the resulting tsunami depends on several factors such as the size of the earthquake, its depth below the ocean floor, the depth of the water, the type and amount of seafloor movement and the energy released.
The West Coast/Alaska Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer, Alaska, is responsible for warning Alaska, both west and east coasts, and states along the Gulf of Mexico. It uses two types of warning data for determining wh...
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