2016 AAAS Annual Meeting (February 11-15, 2016)

February 10 - 15, 2016

Tsunamis: An International Hazard

Tsunamis bring a high toll of death and destruction, as witnessed in 1946 in Hawaii, 1960 in Chile, and 2004 in Indonesia. By necessity, tsunami hazards mitigation is a global science endeavor. Even during the Cold War, the U.S. and the Soviet Union collaborated in forming the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center as a result of the 1946 tsunami. Since the 1992 Nicaraguan tsunami, international teams of scientists have worked together on the International Tsunami Survey Team to document impacts, measure flow depths and overland flow velocities, and interview eyewitnesses. The teams always involve local scientists, and have conducted surveys for every tsunami since 1992. Since the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia, UNESCO has led focused international efforts to train scientists in tsunami hazards mitigation. In addition, multidisciplinary international teams have created inundation maps --  i.e., estimates of future offshore heights for unmapped regions -- to limit future tsunami surprises. On the fifth anniversary of the 2011 Japan tsunami, this symposium discusses how international warnings and the technology for real-time detection have evolved; how tsunami hydrodynamic science has advanced through interdisciplinary collaboration; lessons learned from tsunamis over the past 20 years; public education efforts worldwide; and international collaboration in field studies of paleo-tsunamis and paleo-earthquakes.