This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Eighty years ago, a massive tsunami devastated parts of Hawaii, Alaska, Washington and Oregon following an earthquake off the coast of Alaska. A Michigan State University team is launching a project to study the underwater fault system where it originated—and whether it still poses a risk today.
Songqiao "Shawn" Wei, associate professor of earth and environmental sciences as well as computational mathematics, science and engineering, is gearing up for an expedition to measure vibrations of tectonic plates in the Alaskan–Aleutian subduction zone. For this project, Wei's team will place waterproof sensors called seismometers at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean near Alaska. They'll use atomic clocks to accurately time each vibration they record.
A battery will power the sensor for 15 months, at which point Wei's team will collect the sensors to analyze the data. A project of this magnitude takes more money and planning than tracking vibrations on land. That's where a National Science Foundation grant comes in.
MSU is partnering with the University of Hawaii in the first NSF award of its kind since January 2025. The team is also receiving ship time and instrument usage for the project. Wei is studying this area because the 1946 tsunami was caused by a relatively small earthquake there.
How this happened is still a mystery to seismologists. While the sensors can't tell researchers what happened 80 years ago, they can reveal how the fault is behaving today and help scientists assess whether the region could produce another earthquake or tsunami. "We are still far from predicting earthquakes," Wei said.
"But we can improve our understanding of this local region, and that will be incorporated into the U.S. Geological Survey's risk map and then into building codes." Earthquakes happen when tectonic plates, which move along faults in the Earth's lithosphere, get stuck against each other, building up pressure until they suddenly slip. This releases energy that shakes the ground.
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