Alaska is no stranger to the devastating effects of tsunamis. The state has experienced 37 since the 1800s, three of which are known around the world for the amount of destruction they caused: the 1964 Alaska Tsunami, the 1958 Lituya Bay Tsunami and the 1946 Aleutian Tsunami. Alaska is prone to tsunamis because of two factors: our enormous amount of coastline and our tendency for large earthquakes. The Alaska Tsunami Education Program (ATEP), a new project developed by staff at the Geophysical Institute, aims to use Alaska’s risk of tsunamis as a springboard for polishing students’ math and science skills. Developers received $1,815,453 from the United States Department of Education to push ATEP to fruition and work has begun on the K-12 curriculum.

Alaska has the greatest tsunami potential of any state in the nation. A tsunami may be generated after an earthquake occurs, traveling within minutes to coastal communities. Currently, work is underway to estimate potential flooding areas along the Alaska coast in case of a local or distant tsunami. This work is called tsunami inundation mapping. Once these maps are complete, communities can produce evacuation routes and plan other measures to save lives and property should a tsunami strike.

CRAIG — In this cozy Southeast Alaska community that smells of red cedar chips used to power a boiler that heats both the school and the pool, seismologist Natalia Ruppert responded to an hour of questions from more than 150 people who gathered in the auditorium of the Craig High School.

Around midnight on January 4, Kathleen Brandt felt an earthquake at her home in Sitka. As framed pictures trembled and then fell from the walls, she started counting.