Researchers are establishing an experimental network of air-pressure sensors around lakes Michigan and Erie to see if they can detect “meteotsunami” waves.
Meteotsunamis are storm-driven waves similar in some ways to earthquake-generated tsunamis, though meteotsunamis are far less destructive.
On average, about 100 meteotsunamis occur each year on the Great Lakes, though most are a foot or less in height.
However, on rare occasions, large meteotsunamis have caused property damage, injuries and even deaths. In June 1954, a 10-foot wave believed to be a meteotsunami struck the Lake Michigan shoreline near Chicago, sweeping several people off piers and killing seven.
The pilot system employs newly installed sensors and existing instruments on research buoys and at shoreline weather stations. The sensors will monitor for the abrupt air-pressure changes associated with a line of fast-moving summer thunderstorms that can trigger meteotsunami formation.
Each of 29 sensors will send data in real time to a central data-management system. Four new sensors were installed along Wisconsin’s Lake Michigan shoreline this summer.
The University of Michigan-based Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research, with support from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is funding the project.
Note: This story originally published in the Wisconsin Gazette.