Dave Tappin

Specialisation

Submarine landslides, geohazards and climate change, geological evolution of passive and convergent margins

Telephone

Fax

Short curriculum vitae

In 1998 after a devastating tsunami struck the north coast of Papua New Guinea, killing over 2,000 people, Dave led four marine expeditions to the area offshore of the devastated area. As a result, a submarine landslide was identified as the cause of the tsunami, a controversial conclusion because submarine landslides were not considered a hazardous tsunami source. This led to a global re-evaluation of the tsunami hazard from submarine landslides. After publishing two seminal papers on the PNG event Dave extended his tsunami research into the potential hazard from the lateral collapse of the intraoceanic volcanoes of Hawaii. Here, facies analysis of sediments of disputed origin resulted in identifying these as sourced from a tsunami with a runup of over 400 metres. When the catastrophic tsunami struck the Indian Ocean in 2004, Dave co-led the first marine expedition to survey the rupture zone, subsequently participating in two further expeditions, the research now leading to a new appreciation of the earthquake trigger of submarine landslides and the mechanism of earthquake rupture in tsunami generation. Dave was co-organiser, co-chief scientist and science adviser on the Indian Ocean survey that led to the recently broadcast BBC television documentary, ‘The Unstoppable Wave’, in which he took a prominent role.

Dave’s main research interest continue to focus on tsunamis, actively publishing the results of the marine expeditions to the Indian Ocean, as well extending his research into tsunamis generated by lateral collapse of volcanoes in the Atlantic Ocean where he is studying tsunami sediments on Bermuda, attributed to lateral collapse in the Canary Islands. He is co-PI on a major NERC funded project to continue the research into the Sunda subduction zone and, in collaboration with Professor Bill McGuire at BUHRC, supervises a PhD student studying tsunami sediments in the Canary Islands. Dave is also leader of the BGS deep-time climate project.

Tappin, D. R., McNeil, L. C., Henstock, T. and Mosher, D., in press. Mass wasting processes - offshore Sumatra, in Likousis, V. and Sakellariou, D. (eds) Submarine Landslides. Springer.

McMurtry, G. M., Tappin, D. R., Sedwick, P. N., Wilkinson, I., Fietzke, J. and Sellwood, B. W. in press. Elevated marine deposits in Bermuda record a late Quaternary megatsunami. In Tappin, D. R (Guest Editor) Sedimentary Geology Special Issue on Tsunami Deposits. doi:10.1016/j.sedgeo.2006.10.009

Henstock, T., McNeill, L. and Tappin, D. R. 2006. Seafloor morphology of the 26 December 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake rupture zone, Geology, v. 34; no. 6; p. 485–488; doi: 10.1130/22426.1.

McMurtry, G. M., Fryer, G. J., Tappin, D. R., Wilkinson, I. P., Williams, M., Fietzke, J., Garbe-Schoenberg, D. and Watts, P., 2004. Megatsunami Deposits on Kohala Volcano, Hawaii from Flank Collapse of Mauna Loa, Geology, V 32 (9) 741-744.

Tappin D.R., P. Watts, T. Matsumoto, 2003. Architecture and failure mechanism of the offshore slump responsible for the 1998 PNG tsunami. In Locat, J. and Meinert, J. (eds) Submarine mass movements and their consequences. Kluwer Academic Publishers. pp.383-392.

Tappin, D.R., Gorur, N. Watts, P., Musson, R. and Evans, R., 2002. The Tsunami Threat in the Sea of Marmara: a Review. In, Gorur N., Papadopoulos, G.A and Okay, N. (eds) Integration of Earth Science Research on the Turkish and Greek 1999 earthquakes. NATO Science Series, Kluwer Academic Publishers. 87-100.

Tappin, D.R., Watts, P., McMurtry, G.M., Lafoy, Y. and Matsumoto, T., 2001. The Sissano, Papua New Guinea tsunami of July 1998-offshore evidence on the source. Marine Geology. 175/1-4, 1-23.