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Waves of Death

Why the New Guinea tsunami carries bad news for North America

The recent disaster in Papua New Guinea teaches that earthquakes need not be large to produce devastating ocean waves.

 

References:

Costas Synolakis provides details from the post-disaster survey at http://www.usc.edu/dept/tsunamis/PNG.

 

Further Readings:

1995. Waves in the night: Clues to a quake. Science News 147(April 8):223.

Monastersky, R. 1998. How a middling quake made a giant tsunami. Science News 154(Aug. 1):69.

______. 1996. The mother lode of natural gas. Science News 150(Nov. 9):298.

The National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program maintains a web site at http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/tsunami-hazard/.

 

Sources:

Eddie Bernard
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory
7600 Sand Point Way, N.E.
Seattle, WA 98115
Frank González

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory
7600 Sand Point Way, N.E.
Seattle, WA 98115

Emile A. Okal
Northwestern University
Department of Geological Sciences
Evanston, IL 60208

Costas Synolakis
University of Southern California, Los Angeles
Department of Civil Engineering 2531
Los Angeles, CA 90089

From Science News, Vol. 154, No. 14, October 3, 1998, p. 221.
Copyright Ó 1998 by Science Service.

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