After forty years of experience coordinating the Pacific Tsunami Warning System (PTWS), UNESCO-IOC is leading a global effort to establish ocean-based tsunami warning systems as part of an overall multi-hazard disaster reduction strategy.

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As a consequence, the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO-IOC) has since 1965 been responsible for the intergovernmental coordination of the Pacific Tsunami Warning System (PTWS).

UNESCO: NATURAL SCIENCES

The Pacific's tsunami warning system began to be set up after a giant wave struck Hawaii in 1946, killing more than 150 people.

ECONOMIST: Deluged without warning | The

The IOC established the world's first tsunami warning system in the Pacific in 1965.

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Since the mid 1960s, UNESCO has had the responsibility of coordinating the Tsunami Early Warning System in the Pacific and following the devastating Sumatra earthquake in 2004, which resulted in widespread death and destruction across the region, UNESCO has been responsible for the Indian Ocean system as well.

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Warnings for the system are presently issued by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre based in Hawaii and the Japanese North-West Pacific Tsunami Advisory Centre based in Tokyo.

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