OREGON
Thursday, January 20, 2022
East Oregonian
A7
Volcanic tsunami tests West Coast emergency systems
By JAMIE HALE
The Oregonian
The tsunami that rippled
across the Pacific Ocean on
Saturday, Jan. 15, may have
been a good test run for the
Pacific Northwest’s emer-
gency alert systems, but it’s
not yet clear how useful the
experience will be in prepar-
ing Oregonians for a major
disaster.
Caused not by an earth-
quake but a massive erup-
tion of an undersea volcano
near the Pacific nation of
Tonga, the explosion sent
larger-then-normal swells
up the Oregon, Washington
and California coastlines in
a rare event that researchers
and emergency management
officials are still trying to
wrap their heads around.
St e ph a n ie Ro s s , a
geophysicist with the U.S.
Geological Survey and a
tsunami scenarios coordina-
tor with the Pacific Coastal
and Marine Science Center in
Santa Cruz, California, said
the volcanic tsunami was
unprecedented in the modern
era and the first time the U.S.
Mark Graves/The Oregonian
The entire West Coast, including coastal Oregon, was under a tsunami advisory after an un-
dersea volcano erupted in spectacular fashion near the Pacific nation of Tonga. Many Ore-
gonians still took to the shoreline in Seaside, however. Throngs of beachgoers walked and
played in the sand Saturday, Jan. 15, 2022, and the surf did not appear out of the ordinary.
Tsunami Warning Centers
have issued an alert based on
a volcanic source.
“We know they’re possi-
ble, but it’s just not something
that we deal with very often,”
Ross said. “There’s just a
lot of uncertainty around a
complicated event like this.”
What researchers do
know is that there are a lot
of differences between a
volcanic tsunami far off
in the Pacific Ocean and
a tsunami triggered by an
earthquake, especially a
Cascadia Subduction Zone
earthquake that Oregonians
are most concerned about.
One of the biggest differ-
ences is time — as in, how
much time it takes for a
tsunami to reach shore and
how long people have to
escape.
Harold Tobin, director of
the Pacific Northwest Seis-
mic Network and a professor
of seismology at the Univer-
sity of Washington, said
coastal communities would
have only five to 10 minutes
to flee a tsunami caused
by a major earthquake just
offshore. People on the coast
should evacuate immediately
if they feel an earthquake, he
said, and not wait for an offi-
cial alert.
In contrast, communities
had several hours to prepare
Jan. 15, and most didn’t
bother with evacuations,
which proved to be unnec-
essary.
Tobin said the events
were a “really good test run
and reminder that we need to
have tsunami preparedness at
the top of our minds.”
People should have heeded
the alerts, he said, even
though scientists didn’t have
the usual playbook at hand
with the volcanic tsunami.
For instance, he said,
earthquakes are so baked
into tsunami alerts that when
the U.S. Tsunami Warning
System issues a warning, it
has to include the magnitude
of the event. The volcanic
eruption that caused Satur-
day’s tsunami didn’t have
a magnitude, so officials
simply input “0.1,″ he said, a
figure that initially befuddled
some researchers.
The unprecedented nature
of the volcanic tsunami
off Tonga also left officials
uncertain about how long it
would last, though they were
able to predict how soon it
would arrive. By the time
waves began to swell along
the Pacific coast, word had
already spread across the
region, aided by social media
and media reports, as well as
state and local alert systems.
But that time also gave
people time to drive out to
the coast and see the tsunami
for themselves — an activity
that researchers and emer-
gency officials all adamantly
condemn.
Hemp compounds block COVID-19 from infecting cells, research shows
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
CORVALLIS — New
research from Oregon State
University reveals hemp
might offer protection from
COVID-19, adding to the list
of potential benefits for the
versatile crop.
A major use of hemp
comes from deriving chem-
ical compounds in the plant,
called cannabinoids, which
can then be infused in prod-
ucts such as oils, creams and
oral supplements. Grow-
ing evidence suggests these
cannabinoids can help with
everything from relieving
pain and anxiety to stimulat-
ing appetite in cancer patients.
According to a recently
published OSU study, two
such compounds — specif-
ically cannabigerolic acid,
or CBGA, and cannabidi-
olic acid, or CBDA — also
can block SARS-CoV-2, the
virus that causes COVID-19,
from entering human cells
and preventing severe illness.
Richard van Breemen, a
professor of pharmaceutical
sciences at the Linus Pauling
Institute and OSU College of
Pharmacy, led the study. He
said hemp is not a cure for
COVID-19, nor is it a replace-
ment for face masks and
vaccines, but “another piece
in the armor to help people
stay healthy.”
“It’s going to help people.
At least that’s my hope,” van
Breemen said.
The way CBGA and
CBDA work against the virus
1/21/2022
is similar to vaccines and
other antibodies, van Bree-
men said. By binding them-
selves to the virus’ signature
spike proteins, the acids
essentially cut off a key path-
way of infection.
Van Breemen and his
research team began inves-
tigating hemp molecules in
early 2020. At the time, lab
access at OSU was restricted
to coronavi r us-related
research.
“We looked for compounds
that could bind to the spike
protein, and hopefully prevent
the virus from infecting the
human cell,” van Breemen
said.
Using a form of mass spec-
trometry developed previ-
ously in the lab, the team
screened for compounds
across a range of botanicals
and hemp extracts. They
identified CBGA and CBDA
as having the highest affinity
for binding to spike proteins
in SARS-CoV-2.
But their lab work could
only go so far, since they were
unable to test the compounds
on live virus samples. For
that, the team partnered with
Fikadu Tafesse at Oregon
Health & Science University
in Portland.
Results showed CBGA
and CBDA were equally
effective against the virus and
two early variants. However,
Breemen said more testing
is needed to gauge effective-
ness against other existing
and future virus mutations,
including the highly conta-
gious omicron variant.
“These variants are well
known for evading antibodies
against early lineage SARS-
CoV-2, which is obviously
concerning given that current
vaccination strategies rely on
the early lineage spike protein
as an antigen,” Breemen said.
“Our data show CBDA
and CBGA are effective
against the two variants we
looked at, and we hope that
trend will extend to other
existing and future variants,”
he added.
Another compound in lico-
rice also was found to bind to
the spike proteins during the
initial screening of botanicals,
Breemen said, but has not yet
been tested against the live
virus. “We need new funding
for that,” he said.
CBDA and CBGA are
abundant in hemp extracts,
and may actually require
less processing than cannabi-
diol, or CBD, one of the more
commonly marketed canna-
binoids.
Van Breemen, who serves
on the faculty for OSU’s
Global Hemp Innovation
Center, said the compounds,
if taken orally, appear to offer
a degree of protection and
could increase demand for
hemp production.
“What we do know about
these cannabinoid products
is they have a good safety
profile. People are taking
them already,” he said. “I
think in the long term, what
we need are different thera-
peutic agents, drugs and treat-
ments that work by a variety
of mechanisms.”
1/21/2022
Mention code: 22JanRed