Dear Colleagues
Tomorrow Wednesday, at 17:15, the Kolloquium series of SS05 will continue with the talk outlined below. From 16:45, there will be tea and coffee in front of the lecture hall 16 G 05 at the Irchel Campus of the University (the usual place!). For directions or further information, go to
http://www.physik.unizh.ch/teaching/kolloquium05/kolloquium.html
With best regards,
Juerg Osterwalder
Earthquakes and Tsunami
Edi Kissling Institut für Geophysik, ETH Zürich
Following the large and destructive earthquake of December 26th, 2004 off-shore Sumatra, quick installation of a tsunami warning system for the Indian ocean has been requested and promised by politicians. The second large earthquake in the Sumatra subduction zone only three months later, luckily did not excite a tsunami. This only documents, however, some of the challenges to be met by any warning system for such potentially very dangerous natural phenomena and, in particular, the problems related to false alarms. In the presentation, the main physical processes related to earthquakes and tsunamis will be outlined to address the following problems: What triggers such large earthquakes and under what conditions do they excite a tsunami? How does the tsunami interact with islands, groups of islands, and continental coast lines? Continued earthquake research, tsunami modeling, and fast and reliable routine assessment of earthquake source parameters by seismological services around the world are prerequisites to better understand these natural phenomena. Research and technology provide the basis for targeted monitoring and ultimately for warning systems for earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis, though only by continued and increased awareness and action of local and regional authorities and by the people may these systems work to reduce the effects of these unavoidable processes of nature and hopefully to help prevent disasters.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Prof. Dr. Jürg Osterwalder Physik-Institut, Universität Zürich Winterthurerstr. 190 CH-8057 Zürich, Switzerland phone: +41 44 635 5827 <<< NOTE NEW AREA CODE ! >>> lab: +41 44 635 5745 sekr: +41 44 635 5781 fax: +41 44 635 5704 e-mail: osterwal@physik.unizh.ch web: http://www.physik.unizh.ch/groups/grouposterwalder/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~