Seminar: Tsunami in the Northwestern Atlantic
Speaker: Christa von Hillebrandt-Andrade
Manager of the NOAA National Weather Service Caribbean Tsunami Warning Program
Friday, February 13, 2015. 11:30AM – 12:30PM. ITEC C80
Abstract
Tsunamis occur most frequently as a result of large earthquakes in the Pacific Ocean. Nevertheless, tsunamis have been observed in all oceans and can also be generated by landslides, volcanic eruptions, meteorites and even meteorological events. Although hundreds of tsunamis have occurred historically, it was not until the 2004 devastating Indian Ocean tsunami that greater national and international attention was given to this marine hazard. The global tsunami warning system now cover almost all coastlines, with services for the Northwestern Atlantic being provided by the US Tsunami Warning Center in Alaska and Hawaii. In the northeastern US, in addition to revisiting the Grand Banks Tsunami of 1929, research has focused on the threat of distant tsunamis, submarine landslides and meteotsunamis.
Biography
Von Hillebrandt-Andrade is the past Director of the Puerto Rican Seismic Network. Her expertise spans earthquake and tsunami hazards and warning and monitoring systems. Von Hillebrandt-Andrade chairs the UNESCO IOC Intergovernmental Coordination Group for the Tsunami and other Coastal Hazards Warning System for the Caribbean Sea and Adjacent Regions and is the past President of the Seismological Society of America.
For more information, contact: Rosana Martinez-Castro at rosana.martinez-castro@uconn.edu