Pat Shingleton for May 9, 2012

Scientists at the University of Hawaii-Manoa and NOAA’s Pacific Tsunami Warning Center believe commercial ships could assist in providing warnings for potentially deadly tsunamis. Commercial shipping lines traverse the Pacific basin and could initiate global coverage around areas of the Earth that produce tsunamis. All ocean-going vessels are equipped with high-accuracy GPS and satellite communications, and a sensing network would improve the detection and predictions of tsunamis. Researchers believe the proposed network would have detected the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami within an hour, saving thousands of lives. Initial tsunami warnings are based on seismic earthquake data and commercial ships could fill in the blanks to determine the size and direction of a deadly tsunami. Fastcast: Cooler.