Events & Calendars Man-Made Natural Disasters and the Tsunami Project

“Natural” disasters are not simply the result of the overwhelming forces of nature, but rather a deadly and expensive interaction of geophysical hazards with vulnerable human landscapes. We use the dynamic environments of Asia/Pacific to study the evolution of disasters by using geoscience to constrain the frequency and magnitude of impacts, and by comparing the vulnerabilities laid bare by recent events to identify weaknesses in systems that need reinforcement. The increasingly erratic climate is generating events of a scale never before seen in this region already replete with tectonic hazards including the largest volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and tsunamis in the historical record.