Nine Alaskan seismic stations shut down, raising concerns over delayed tsunami warnings and increased risks for West Coast communities.
Nine seismic stations in Alaska are set to go offline this month, dealing a major blow to the U.S. tsunami warning system and raising concerns over the ability to provide timely alerts to coastal communities.
The stations, located along the Aleutian Islands, rely on a federal grant that lapsed last year. The Trump administration declined to renew the funding, which had previously supported sensors crucial for monitoring earthquakes along the Alaskan Subduction Zone. This fault line, one of the most active in the world, poses a significant risk to Alaska, California, Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii.
“The last domestic tsunami came from Alaska, and the next one likely will,” said Michael West, director of the Alaska Earthquake Center. He warned that losing the stations could delay warnings for Alaskan communities and reduce forecast precision for more distant areas like Washington state.
The U.S. operates two tsunami warning centers, in Palmer, Alaska, and Honolulu, Hawaii. Both centers are short-staffed: 11 of 20 positions are filled in Alaska, while four of 16 are vacant in Hawaii, according to the National Weather Service Employees Organization. These centers rely heavily on seismic data from Alaska to issue rapid warnings and inform evacuation decisions.
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Funding cuts have compounded staffing issues. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reduced support for the National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program from $6 million to $4 million in 2025, while also laying off the program manager in February 2025. “It’s on life support,” West said.
The Alaska stations provide critical early data that allow warning centers to issue forecasts within five minutes of a quake—vital when an earthquake near the Aleutians can send waves into nearby communities almost immediately. Without this data, initial forecasts become less precise, delaying evacuation decisions and increasing uncertainty about wave heights.
Many of the stations are in remote, Roadless locations, making replacement or alternative monitoring difficult. Plans call for the equipment to remain in place, but the data feed previously transmitted to national centers will cease.
Tsunami experts warn that disruptions in monitoring could compromise public safety. Past events, including the 1964 magnitude-9.2 Alaskan earthquake, caused deadly tsunamis along the West Coast, killing 124 people and devastating coastal communities.
“This is a sparsely monitored region,” said Harold Tobin, a seismologist in Washington state. “We kind of need to have a stethoscope on this region. These programs are in the background until a big, terrible event happens.”
The closures highlight ongoing challenges for the U.S. tsunami warning infrastructure, which has faced decades of underfunding, staffing shortages, and administrative cutbacks, leaving the system increasingly vulnerable to future disasters.