The second way a tsunami warning is triggered is what happened in Northern California on Thursday, NWS said. Local trigger events that occur close to the coast do not have the luxury of time.

There's often little warning when a tsunami strikes, but a research team at USF aims to improve the forecasting of these hazardous events for communities that are most at risk.

DENGLER: Part of the issue is that we don't put the resources into tsunami sciences like the Japanese do. VENTON ... This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in ...