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.

EGU 2016 session: Geological records of extreme wave events

Abstract submission has just opened for the 2016 European Geoscience Union General Assembly, to be held in Vienna from 17-22nd April. We invite you to submit abstracts for our session on Geological records of extreme wave events.

Magnitude 8.3 earthquake, central Chile, 16th September 2015

USGS Shakemap: available here

A great earthquake struck central Chile yesterday, with severe to extreme shaking felt in the Coquimbo region. The initial magnitude is estimated at 8.3, making this larger than the 2014 Iquique earthquake and the largest to strike Chile since the magnitude 8.8 earthquake of 2010.

The earthquake occurred along the Chilean Subduction Zone, a fault between the Nazca and South American Plates. The Nazca Plate subducts beneath South America, with the strain that accumulates over time episodically released during earthquakes. Great subduction zone earthquakes such as this are accompanied by intense shaking that may last several minutes. They also frequently generate tsunamis, which may be damaging both close to the source and across ocean basins. Wave heights of over 4m have been reported in Chile. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre suggests large waves are unlikely for most Pacific countries, however Chile and French Polynesia remain on alert for waves exceeding 1m.