CARIBE WAVE 2025 exercise in the Caribbean and Adjacent Regions

On 20 March 2025, close to half a million of people across 44 countries, territories, and Member States took part in CARIBE WAVE 2025 - one of the world's largest tsunami simulation exercises. According to TsunamiZone, around 500,000* participants registered this year, marking an increase of around 35,000 person from 2024. The M7.6 earthquake of 8 February 2025 in the Western Caribbeanwas noted as a driver for increased participation.

Countries had the option to simulate one of two earthquake/tsunami scenarios. The first, a scenario with a magnitude 8.0 earthquake in the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault zone (EPGFZ) to the East of Jamaica and the second one, an offshore Portugal earthquake based on the catastrophic 1755 Lisbon earthquake and tsunami magnitude 8.6.

CARIBE WAVE is spearheaded by UNESCO-IOC's Intergovernmental Coordination Group for the Tsunami and other Coastal Hazards Warning System for the Caribbean and Adjacent Regions (ICG/CARIBE EWS). It is coordinated through the CARIBE WAVE Task Team with support from the International Tsunami Information Center - Caribbean Office (ITIC-CAR), the Caribbean Tsunami Information Center (CTIC), the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) and the Central America Tsunami Advisory Center (CATAC).

The objectives of the exercise are to validate communications and practice and evaluate tsunami procedures to strengthen overall preparedness. It also supports the UNESCO-IOC's Tsunami Ready Recognition Programmewhich includes the conduct of community tsunami exercises as one of the indicators for recognition.

Throughout the 14-hours exercise, officials issued 50 simulated text and graphical tsunami messages. It began with an initial "dummy" message broadcast across PTWC and CATAC channels to test communication links between Tsunami Service and designated Tsunami Warning Focal Points (TWFPs) Providers and National Tsunami Warning Centers (NTWCs) in each country. Following that, simulated text and graphical products were disseminated by the PTWC (Jamaica and Portugal scenarios) and CATAC (Jamaica scenario). The simulated products included information such as earthquake location, magnitude, estimated wave arrival times, forecast wave heights, and potential areas under threat and synthetic observations.

This year's exercise saw a multitude of activities such as drills, tabletop exercises, seminars, and communication tests. According toTsunamiZone, K-12 schools and districts led the charge, followed by local governments, state government, colleges, and universities, businesses, health care organizations, hotels, tourism groups, volunteer radio groups, and people with disabilities. Many participants showcased their involvement on social media, spreading awareness on CARIBE WAVE 25.

To prepare for the event, over 300 people with national responsibilities related to tsunami warning and disaster-emergency management attended a series of multilingual (French, Spanish and English) webinars covering the scenarios, tsunami products and communication systems. An additional webinar focused on GEONETCast Americas. A final webinar, serving as a "hotwash" to reflect on the exercise and gather feedback, is scheduled for April 1. A post-exercise survey is underway to review and analyze the receipt of TSPs products and track progress and actions taken by national and community authorities and other stakeholders and the implementation status of the UNESCO-IOC Tsunami Ready Recognition Programme.

For more information, visit caribewave.org to access handbooks, reports and guides. Participants statistics can be found at TsunamiZone.

Photos from CARIBE WAVE 25 from left to right, top to bottom, are from: Honduras, Venezuela, Mexico, Puerto Rico, British Virgin Islands, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, and Colombia.

* Participants number reflect registrations as of 24^th March 2025. Final figures will be confirmed through official post-exercise evaluations submitted by Member States.

Kimberly Maisonet Gonzalez and Christa von Hillebrandt-Andrade, NOAA International Tsunami Information Center Caribbean Office (ITIC-CAR)

Alison Brome, UNESCO/IOC Caribbean Tsunami Information Center (CTIC)

Antonio Aguilar and Gisela Baez, Chair and Vice Chair, ICG/CARIBE-EWS Task Team on CARIBE WAVE