Nine seismic stations in Alaska are scheduled to stop working this month, leaving tsunami forecasters without crucial data used to determine whether an earthquake will send a devastating wave barreling toward the West Coast.
The stations relied on a federal grant that expired last year. This fall, the Trump administration refused to renew it. Data from the stations are helping researchers determine the size and shape of earthquakes along the Alaska subduction zone, a fault that can produce some of the world’s strongest earthquakes and endanger California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii.
The loss of stations could result in Alaska’s coastal communities receiving late notice of an impending tsunami, according to Michael West, director of the Alaska Earthquake Center. Remote communities, such as in Washington state, can get less accurate forecasts.
“In absolute statistics, the last local tsunami came from Alaska, and the next one is likely to come,” he said.
It’s the latest blow to the U.S. tsunami warning system, which was already underinvested and understaffed. The researchers said they were concerned that the network was starting to collapse.
“All the things in the tsunami warning system are backing down,” West said. “There’s a compound problem.”
The United States has two tsunami warning centers — one in Palmer, Alaska, and the other in Honolulu — that work around the clock to make forecasts that help emergency managers determine whether coastal evacuations are necessary after an earthquake. Data from seismic stations in Alaska have historically fed these centers.
Both centers are already understaffed. Of the center’s 20 full-time positions in Alaska, only 11 are currently filled, according to Tom Fahey, union legislative director for the National Organization of Weather Service Employees. In Hawaii, four of the sixteen floors are open. (Both sites are in the process of hiring scientists, Fahey said.)
In addition, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration has reduced funding for the National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program, which pays for the majority of states’ tsunami risk mitigation work. Agency Provided $4 million in 2025 – far Less than $6 million I have shown historically.
“He’s on life support,” West said of the program.
Furthermore, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) laid off the director of the National Weather Service’s tsunami program, Corinna Allen, as part of the Trump administration’s firing of probationary workers in February, according to Harold Tobin, a seismologist in Washington state. Allen, who recently started at the agency, declined to comment through a spokesman for her new employer, the Washington State Department of Natural Resources.
These latest cuts have emerged amid the Trump administration’s broader efforts to cut federal spending on science and climate research, among other areas. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) fired hundreds of workers in February, cut back on weather balloon launches and halted research on the costs of climate and weather disasters, among other cuts.
Most of the seismic stations that have been closed in Alaska are located in remote areas of the Aleutian Islands, West said. The ridge extends west from the Alaska Peninsula toward Russia, following an underwater subduction zone. KHNS, a public radio station in Alaska, I first reported the news that the stations were going out of business.
A NOAA grant of about $300,000 annually supported the stations. The Alaska Earthquake Center requested new funding for the grant through 2028, but was denied, according to an email between West and NOAA staff seen by NBC News.
Kim Doster, a spokeswoman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), said the federal agency stopped providing the money in 2024 under the Biden administration. In the spring, the University of Alaska Fairbanks raised money to continue the program for another year, believing the federal government would eventually cover the cost, said Uma Bhatt, a professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and associate director of the research institute that administered the grant. But the new money never materialized.
“The loss of these observations does not prevent the Tsunami Warning Center from carrying out its mission,” Doster said. “Atomic Energy Commission [Alaska Earthquake Center] One of many partners supporting National Weather Service tsunami operations, the NWS continues to use several mechanisms to ensure seismic data collection across the state of Alaska.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
The Alaska Earthquake Center provides the majority of the data used for tsunami warnings in the state, West said. The grant that supported the nine seismic stations also funded data feeding with information from the center’s other sensors, according to West. National tsunami warning centers will no longer have direct access to the feed.
The stations in the Aleutian Islands cover a huge geographic range, West said.
“There’s nothing else around,” he said. “It’s not like there’s another tool 20 miles down the road. There’s no road.”
West added that the plan is to abandon the stations later this month and leave their equipment in place.
Tobin, of Washington state, said he was concerned that the closures “could delay or reduce the quality of tsunami warnings.”
“This is an area that is only minimally monitored. We urgently need a stethoscope in this area,” he said, adding: “These programs are in the background until a major and terrible event occurs.”
The Alaska-Aleutian Subduction Zone is one of the most active faults in the world and has produced large tsunamis in the past. In 1964, a tsunami occurred as a result of a 9.2 magnitude earthquake 124 people were killedincluding 13 in California and five in Oregon, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Most of the deaths in California occurred in Crescent City, where a 21-foot wave destroyed 29 city blocks. According to the city’s website.
Tsunami experts said stations in the Aleutian Islands are critical to quickly understanding nearby earthquakes. The closer the earthquake is to the sensor, the less certain there is about a subsequent tsunami.
NOAA’s tsunami warning centers aim to issue preliminary forecasts within five minutes, which is critical for local communities, West said. (A strong earthquake in the Aleutian Islands could send a primary wave into nearby Alaska communities within minutes.) The only data available fast enough to support these initial predictions comes from seismic signals (rather than tide gauges or pressure sensors attached to buoys).
Warning centers then make more specific wave height forecasts about 40 minutes later. The lack of sensors in Alaska would create more uncertainty about expected wave heights, complicating decisions on whether to evacuate along the Washington coast, said Daniel Ewingard, head of the tsunami program at the Washington Geological Survey.
“We try not to over-evacuate,” he said, adding that it costs time, money and trust if warnings prove unnecessary.
Over the past year, the National Tsunami Warning Centers have been fully occupied. A 7.0-magnitude earthquake near Cape Mendocino, California, triggered tsunami warnings along the state’s coast in December. In July, an 8.8-magnitude earthquake off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula triggered a widespread alert along the West Coast of the United States. The peninsula is located just west of the Aleutian Islands.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) helped build several seismic stations that were part of the Alaska Earthquake Center network. But West said the agency has reduced its support over the past two decades. Nine stations established by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) were decommissioned in 2013.
“It is now or never to decide whether NOAA is part of this or not,” he said. “What I really want to do is spark a discussion about tsunami efforts in the United States, and not have it sparked by the next devastating tsunami.”