Tsunami Field Missions

Field missions have become an important source of information to further the science and human interaction with major natural hazards. The collection of first hand measurements, interviews and damage assessment have proven to be an invaluable in the disaster management planning. After an event the window of opportunity to collect meaningful data is relatively short and the wide range of disciplines may be too diverse for a single group to cover. It is with this in mind that EEFIT (Earthquake Engineering Field Investigation Team) formed in 1982 as a joint venture between industry and universities. EEFIT's principle activity is conducting field investigations following major earthquakes and tsunami and is able to quickly bring together experts from a wide range of disciplines. To date members of the EPICentre have been involved in EEFIT tsunami missions to Sri Lanka and Thailand (2004 Indian Ocean tsunami), Samoa (2009) and Chile (2010). All EEFIT reports are available here.

Figure: Images from the 2010 Chile EEFIT mission - severe tsunami damage in Dichato.

Sponsors: EPSRC

Epicentre Staff Involved: Tiziana Rossetto, Tristan Robinson, Tristan Lloyd