Why did early warning systems relying solely on seismometers frequently result in alerts that were considered educated guesses?
Answer
Because they could only detect ground shaking rather than confirming the presence of an actual wave
Early tsunami warnings were heavily reliant on seismometers, which are designed to detect and measure the magnitude and location of earthquakes. While this data could identify a potential threat based on the size of the earthquake, these devices were incapable of confirming whether a wave had actually formed or was traveling across the ocean. Consequently, authorities were making decisions based on the assumption of danger rather than verified evidence of a tsunami, making the initial alerts inherently speculative.
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