On September 29, 2009 a magnitude 8.0 earthquake struck Samoa and the American Samoa Islands . Nearly 20 minutes later, villages were inundated by four tsunami waves ranging from 15 to 20 feet high and reaching as far as a mile inland.

While an undergraduate student at the University of Notre Dame, I surveyed the effects from a similar scenario, the devastating Dec. 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. The tsunami engulfed entire communities minutes after residents felt a severe earthquake on land.

As part of a ten-week program, I worked with civil engineer Tracy Kijewski-Correa on modeling a hotel in Thailand that suffered structural damages under the catastrophic waves. 

As there is a limited amount of research on tsunami loading — the forces impacting built structures — I compared the failure modes and moments I found in my simulation model to those from more thoroughly studied natural hazards, such as the Northridge Earthquake and Hurricane Katrina. 

From this analysis I came up with recommendations on how to improve construction within a tsunami inundation zone. A key finding was that elevating structures or using breakaway walls drastically reduces the forces that can damage a structure, reducing the area subjected to assault or allowing an incoming wave to simply pass through.

While my recommendations seem practical, the most rewarding part of my research came at the end of the summer when the group traveled to Thailand to conduct field reconnaissance. Firsthand exposure to the tsunami-induced devastation was humbling. 

However, when I saw new construction that used the design measures my research project was advocating, I was full of hope and inspired to help hazard-prone coastal communities build more sustainably. 

I soon realized that the best way to accomplish this goal and obtain a better understanding of tsunami loading was through graduate work with Dan Cox at the Oregon State University (OSU) O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory, part of the National Science Foundation’s Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation, or NEES.

Due to its close proximity to the Cascadia Subduction Zone, there is a threat of an earthquake-generated tsunami off the Pacific Northwestern Coast of the United States. 

Such a tsunami would give residents in coastal communities little time to evacuate to higher ground, so researchers at Oregon State University are investigating ways to improve tsunami preparedness by offering protection within the inundation zone. 

Two approaches are the construction of vertical evacuation structures within the inundation zone, which can save lives by moving people above and out of harms way, and armoring communities with small seawalls, which can reduce tsunami forces on landward structures by deflecting an incoming wave skyward. 

Currently, I am working on a large-scale experiment at OSU that allows me not only to operate a state-of-the-art wavemaker at one of the largest wave research facilities in the world, but also to be a part of a project that has direct impacts on society.

Finish reading - Source : Live Science