Climate Extremes

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Indian Ocean Tsunami

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Rapid Environmental Impact Assessment in Disaster Response


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Education and Training

“The Indian Ocean tsunami of December 26th 2004 shook the hazard and risk science community. More than 200,000 lives were lost and recent estimates put the total economic cost at US$15 billion. This event should not, however, be treated as unique, and major tsunamis can occur anywhere on the planet at any time. Two hundred and fifty years ago next month, for example, the great Lisbon earthquake triggered devastating tsunamis that took thousands of lives in Europe and North Africa and crossed the Atlantic Basin to the Caribbean,” commented Professor Bill McGuire, Benfield Professor of Geohazards and Director of the Benfield UCL Hazard Research Centre, who was one of the speakers at the event.

“This latest one-day workshop was designed to bring re/insurance professionals and other delegates up do date with current thinking on tsunami hazard and risk in the light of the Indian Ocean event,” he added.

Topics and speakers on the day included:

• Introducing Tsunami: Extreme events such as the Indian Ocean tsunami are fortunately rare. They can, however, be utilised to increase our understanding of natural Earth processes that can be used downstream to develop our understanding of hazard and risk. (Dr. David Tappin, British Geological Survey)
• The Indian Ocean Tsunami: impacts and lessons (pdf 6.74mb):The Boxing Day tsunami killed 230,000 people from 57 countries and caused total economic loss estimates of more than 11 billion US Dollars. A UK Earthquake Engineering Field Investigation Team examined the impact on, and vulnerability of, local buildings to the tsunami forces and their lifeline infrastructures. (Dr. Tiziana Rossetto, BUHRC)
• Tsunamis Down-under (pdf 3.7mb): Examines the impact of the Indian Ocean tsunami on buildings and other structures, and assesses the risk from tsunami in the southern hemisphere. (Professor Russell Blong, Benfield Australia)
• Volcanic Tsunamis: Past, Present and Future (pdf 2.37mb): Island and coastal volcanoes are a common source of tsunamis large enough to cause major loss of life and severe destruction, either locally or at oceanic distances. (Professor Bill McGuire, BUHRC)
• The Storegga Slide Tsunami: A Major Pre-historic Tsunami in the UK (pdf 2.6mb):Around 8,000 years ago, a great tsunami generated by submarine sliding on the Continental Shelf and Slope occurred off the coast of South-West Norway. Evidence from this event – known as the Storegga Slide - can provide information about the detailed impact of these phenomena. (Professor David Smith, University of Oxford)
• Landslide Tsunamis in the North Atlantic: Prospects for Another Storegga: There is strong evidence for submarine landslides of a wide variety of sizes around the North Atlantic. Recent studies have shown that such landslides are an integral part of continental slope development particularly in mid to high latitude areas. (Dr. David Long, British Geological Survey)
• The Threat Posed by Tsunamis to the UK: Evidence that tsunamis have reached the UK in the past indicates that the possibility of significant future events cannot be dismissed. (Dr. Brian Baptie, British Geological Survey)
• Engineering Tools for Tsunami Risk Assessment (pdf 1.72mb): A number of tools are available to model tsunami generation, propagation and inundation, while the use of risk based methodologies in risk assessment for flooding events can also be applied to tsunami risk assessment. (Dr. Jane Smallman, HR Wallingford)

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