Author Archives: costas

Re-posted from the Wall Street Journal Asia: This week’s twin disasters in Indonesia—the eruption of Mount Merapi and the 7.7-magnitude earthquake off west-central Sumatra—have again brought warning systems and emergency preparedness into the spotlight. The resulting view is far from … Continue reading →

A study just published in Nature Geophysicas by Hornbach et al (2010) reports that the 12 January 2010 strike-slip earthquake that killed over 220,000 people in Haiti also triggered a 3m tsunami. The associated press release (at the end of this item) claims that the study implies that Los Angeles and other metropolitan areas around the world are at higher risk of tsunamis. Continue reading →

The National Research Council of the National Academies released a long awaited report on the nation’s ability to detect tsunamis. According to it, while our ability has improved in the last few years, many coastal communities remain at risk because … Continue reading →

The 5 year anniversary of the 26 December 2004 tsunami came and passed without much fanfare. We were all painfully reminded of tsunamis within the first two months of 2010 with the Solomon Islands, Haitian and Chilean tsunamis, that combined may have killed over 400 people, largely unnecessarily, given that tsunami preparedness works, and forecast technology is now available. Continue reading →