A tsunami is a series of ocean waves generated by the sudden displacement of a large volume of water — most often by a submarine earthquake, but also by landslides, volcanic eruptions, or coastal collapse. In the open ocean the waves are barely noticeable; as they reach shallow water near shore they slow and pile up, and can arrive as a fast-rising surge many meters high.
Live U.S. tsunami messages from the NOAA/NWS Tsunami Warning Centers, ingested via the platform feeds addon and rendered from the record store at view time (no page churn).
[DataFeed: no records for feed 'tsunami-alerts']
If nothing renders above, no tsunami messages are currently active — or the tsunami-alerts feed source is not yet configured (see Configuration).
| Level | Meaning |
| ------- | --------- |
| Warning | Dangerous coastal flooding and powerful currents likely or underway. Move to high ground. |
| Advisory | Strong currents or waves dangerous to those in or near the water. Stay out of the water. |
| Watch | A distant earthquake may later cause a tsunami; stay alert for updates. |
| Information | A minor or distant event; no action needed for most coasts. |
| Source | Provider | Coverage |
| -------- | ---------- | --------- |
| Real-time alerts | NOAA/NWS via api.weather.gov | U.S. coasts, Pacific, Caribbean |
| Historical events | NOAA NCEI / WDS Global Historical Tsunami Database | Global, 2100 BC–present |
| Source earthquakes | USGS Earthquake Hazards Program | Global, near-real-time |
The live feed is served by the ngdpbase feeds addon (#685). Enable it and declare the source in the instance app-custom-config.json, then restart:
{
"ngdpbase.addons.feeds.enabled": true,
"ngdpbase.addons.feeds.sources": {
"tsunami-alerts": {
"adapter": "geojson",
"url": "https://api.weather.gov/alerts/active?event=Tsunami%20Warning,Tsunami%20Advisory,Tsunami%20Watch",
"type": "WarningAlert",
"schemaType": "Article",
"intervalMinutes": 10,
"recordIdField": "id",
"map": {
"event": "properties.event",
"severity": "properties.severity",
"area": "properties.areaDesc",
"effective": "properties.effective",
"expires": "properties.expires",
"headline": "properties.headline",
"url": "id"
}
}
}
}
type is the domain label (WarningAlert); schemaType stays Article — the WarningAlert/Event schema.org union types are not yet implemented by the framework (ngdpbase#762).
Status: page and feed wiring live. For live data outside this instance visit tsunami.gov and ngdc.noaa.gov/hazard/tsu_db.shtml.