“The TsunamiReady Program, developed by the National Weather Service, is designed to help cities, towns, counties, universities and other large sites in coastal areas reduce the potential for disastrous tsunami-related consequences.” NOAA has educational materials available for people of all ages.
“Decision-support systems can be used to help synthesize, visualize, and analyze the natural-science and socioeconomic information needed for making risk-reduction and land-use choices.”
“The United Nations reports 2011 was the costliest year in history for catastrophes. It says economic losses from natural disasters, including earthquakes, storms and floods, amounted to $366 billion.” Quoted from the Voice of America article.
“NASA and Ohio State University researchers have discovered the major tsunami generated by the Japanearthquake of March 2011 was a long-hypothesized ‘merging tsunami.’ The tsunami doubled in intensity over rugged ocean ridges, amplifying its destructive power at landfall.”
An article on the Syracuse.com website explains how about 20 million tons of floating debris from Japan’s March 11th earthquake and tsunami is moving across the Pacific and is expected to wash ashore on the Hawaiian Islands and the US west coast.
“Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands are located at an active plate boundary between the North American plate and the northeast corner of the Caribbean plate. Plate movements there have caused large magnitude earthquakes and devastating tsunamis, but scientists have so far failed to explain the deformation of this complex region in a coherent and predictable picture, and this has hampered their ability to assess the seismic and tsunami hazards.” Quoted from the USGS website.
The new issue of Lite Geology by the New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources has an interesting article titled: “Ancient Tsunamis from Meteorite Impacts”.
This isn’t news but the Oregon State University website has an excellent article titled: “Super-Scale Slumping of the Southern Oregon Cascadia Margin: Tsunamis, Tectonic Erosion, and Extension of the Forearc” with great seafloor maps and seismic sections. Be sure to enlarge the images.
Large landslides produce about 10% of the world’s tsunamis. Researchers at Oregon State University have a laboratory that models landslide-generated tsunamis by launching a ton and a half of gravel down a steep incline into water.
“A NASA scientist and her colleagues were able to observe for the first time the power of an earthquake and tsunami to break off large icebergs a hemisphere away.” Quoted from the NASA image release.
“With support from the National Science Foundation, sociologist Tricia Wachtendorf and teams from the Disaster Research Center go to devastated locations to learn more about how lives may be saved in the future.” Quoted from the National Science Foundation news release.
“The Coos County Flood and Natural Hazards Web Tool is an interactive map that shows which parts of Coos County are subject to various natural hazards. Overlays that show flood, tsunami, earthquake, river channel migration, and landslide hazards can be selected and viewed down to a scale of 1:4,514.” Quoted from the OregonGeology.org website.
The Oregon Department of Geology has released a special paper on tsunami inundation at Bandon, Coos County, Oregon using hypothetical Cascadia and Alaskaearthquake scenarios. Also released was a revised Bandon tsunami evacuation brochure.
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan believes that Japan should work to decrease and then eliminate its reliance on nuclear power: “Through my experience of the March 11 accident, I came to realize the risk of nuclear energy is too high.”
Earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes and flooding during the first six months of this year have already made 2011 the record year for natural catastrophe losses. This free webinar from Munich Re provides an overview of the estimated $265 billion in losses.
“To better understand and reduce tsunami hazards, USGS scientists examined sediment deposited by the tsunami in and around Sendai, Japan, as part of an international tsunami survey team organized by Japanese scientific cooperators.” Quoted from the USGS Science Features page.
“Survey teams try to enter tsunami-stricken areas as soon as possible after rescue and recovery work to document physical evidence of tsunami flow characteristics—such as debris in trees, high-water stains on buildings, and sedimentary deposits—before it is degraded or destroyed by natural forces or cleanup activities.” Quoted from the USGS fieldwork writings.
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