[unav_all] Subduction and geohazards monitoring symposia at IGC 2012 in Brisbane

[Laura Wallace]

We would like to call your attention to the following two symposia that 
are part of the program for the Geohazards Theme of the 34th International 
 Geological Congress to be held in Brisbane, Australia on 5-10 August 2012 
(see http://www.34igc.org/index.php). For Symposium 30.4 Geohazards in 
subduction zones, we welcome contributions from any field that contributes 
to the understanding of geological hazards related to the subduction 
process. For Symposium 30.6 Earth monitoring for improved forecasting of 
natural hazards, we welcome contributions from scientists actively 
involved in the monitoring of natural hazards, as well as those developing 
new techniques that can be applied to forecasting and early warning.
The symposia descriptions appear below. Abstracts can be submitted via (
http://www.34igc.org/submit-abstracts.php), but please note that the 
deadline for submission is 17 February.
Best regards, and we look forward to seeing you in Brisbane! 

Laura Wallace, Phil Cummins, Danny Natawidjaja, and Ken Gledhill

30.4 Geohazards in subduction zones

 
Laura WALLACE l.wallace at gns.cri.nz (New Zealand), Phil CUMMINS (Australia) 
and Danny NATAWIDJAJA (Indonesia)

Subduction zones are the scenes of the most intense geological activity on 
the planet. They are the source of the earth's largest earthquakes and 
tsunamis, and some of its largest and most dangerous volcanic eruptions. 
High rainfall and fertile soils in many such areas support large 
populations. As a consequence, subduction zones are often associated with 
high natural hazard risk. Despite their potential impact on human society, 
some of the most fundamental questions about these hazards remain to be 
answered: what are the maximum credible events, what are their typical 
recurrence rates, and what are the structural, chemical and mechanical 
factors that control them? What is the relationship of newly discovered 
slow slip event behaviour to subduction thrust earthquakes? How does the 
occurrence of one earthquake trigger subsequent earthquake and volcanic 
activity? What geologic factors enhance tsunami generation? Contributions 
are invited aimed at answering such questions, from studies of the 
fundamental process driving subduction zone geohazards, to the local 
environmental and geological factors that determine their impacts.
30.6 Earth monitoring for improved forecasting of natural hazards
Phil CUMMINS phil.cummins at anu.edu.au (Australia) and Ken GLEDHILL (New 
Zealand)

The 21st century has begun with a string of natural disasters of seemingly 
unprecedented scale, including the 2004 Indian Ocean and 2011 NE Japan 
tsunamigenic earthquakes, the 2010 Haiti earthquake, and major floods in 
China, Brazil and Australia as well as bush/wildfire disasters in 
Australia, Russia and Israel during 2010-2011. These events have all 
demonstrated that our ability to monitor natural hazard phenomena has 
improved dramatically over the last two decades, due to a proliferation of 
observation platforms including real-time seismographic, geodetic and sea 
level networks as well as space- and air-borne remote sensing systems. 
While these technologies have provided a wealth of data for post-event 
analysis, how well do they contribute to our ability for real-time 
monitoring and forecasting of natural hazard phenomena? We invite 
presentations on novel uses of real-time environmental monitoring to help 
forecast natural hazard phenomena - e.g. monitoring of earthquakes and 
ground deformation using real-time seismographic and geodetic networks and 
their use in forecasting tsunamis and volcanic eruptions, real-time 
rainfall and other remote sensing measurements for forecasting landslides 
and floods, and monitoring of surface temperature and vegetation to 
forecast bush/wildfires. We are particular interested in presentations 
that combine such observations with dynamic modelling of natural hazard 
phenomena.
Notice: This email and any attachments are confidential. If received in error please destroy and immediately notify us. Do not copy or disclose the contents.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://ls.unavco.org/pipermail/unav_all/attachments/20120113/36d56b7b/attachment.html