PhD opportunity: Holocene palaeoseismicity and sea-level change in Chile

The Department of Geography, Northumbria University, seeks to appoint a PhD student to work on Holocene sea-level change and palaeoseismicity in Chile. Funding is available to UK and international students. The closing date is 20th January 2017. Read on for more details about the position.  

A tsunami in Belgium?

In the wake of a series of devastating tsunamis in the Indian Ocean, Chile and Japan, Cecile Baeteman was asked whether such an event could also happen in the North Sea. Prof. Baeteman is an expert in sea-level change and coastal processes at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences. Here are her thoughts on whether tsunamis pose a threat to coasts of the UK, France and, in particular, Belgium:

On this day in 1960

A sand layer deposited by the 1960 tsunami,
deposited on top of and later covered by peat

Today, 22nd May 2016, marks the 56th anniversary of the 1960 Great Chilean earthquake. With a magnitude estimated at 9.5, this still stands as the largest instrumentally documented earthquake worldwide. 

Palaeoseismologists have sought to characterise the geological evidence for this earthquake and the subsequent tsunami in a range of different settings.

A Thai field season in 90 seconds (+Video)

Kruawun Jankaew (Chulalongkorn University, Thailand), Evelien Boes (Ghent University, Belgium) and I have been exploring lakes and lowlands along the coast of Thailand for the last couple of weeks. Following on from my last post on our first couple of days, we've condensed the rest of the field season into less than 90 seconds of video...

First days of Thailand fieldwork (+Video)

Evelien Boes, Kruawun Jankaew and I are currently in Thailand looking for sedimentary evidence of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.  Our main focus is on coastal lakes and we've spent the last two days exploring various potential sites around Thap Lamu, Khao Lak, Bang Sak and Kho Khao.

Here's a quick glimpse of our travels and travails so far, condensed into 36 seconds...

Thailand tsunami fieldwork

Evelien Boes and I are currently in Thailand. For the next two weeks we'll be investigating tsunami deposits in coastal locations in Phang Nga Province with Kruawun Jankaew from Chulalongkorn University. Evelien will be blogging about our trip over at the UGent Fieldbook. Her first post covers the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and includes some chilling videos taken in the area in which we will be working.

EGU2016: Speakers announced

We are delighted to announce that Dr Raphaël Paris (Université Blaise Pascal - Clermont-Ferrand) will be the invited speaker for the EGU 2016 session "Geological records of extreme wave events". Dr Paris will speak on "Tsunami deposits at high altitudes on the flanks of volcanic islands". 

We're also pleased to welcome Professor Ben Horton (Rutgers), who will give the Plinius Medal Lecture as part of the session. We congratulate Prof. Horton on this prestigious medal and look forward to his lecture on "The importance of sea-level research".

We are still welcoming submissions for session NH5.7/GM12.6/SSP3.20 on any aspect of extreme waves in the geological record, including field investigations, numerical and physical modelling studies and everything in-between. The abstract deadline is 13th January 2016. To submit an abstract, click on the link on the session page of the EGU website. Check out the info page for more details on how to submit. 

Vulnerable Coastal Areas

Philipp Kempf, Renard Centre of Marine Geology, Ghent University,
presents on his research into tsunamis in Chile

The Belgian Royal Academy for Overseas Sciences held a multidisciplinary workshop on Vulnerable Coastal Areas on 10th December. The workshop, chaired by Cecile Baeteman, brought together researchers from Belgium, the UK and Chile, with presentations on hazard, risk and resilience in a variety of different settings.