When a devastating magnitude 8.0 earthquake occurred roughly 200 km south of the Samoan Islands at 17:48:11 UTC on Tuesday September 29, 2009, it generated a trans-oceanic tsunami that spread at jet-like speeds throughout the Pacific Ocean.

At 04:57:33 UTC on 30 September, roughly 11 hours after the earthquake, five of our newly deployed Bottom Pressure Recorders (BPRs) and one...