SSA 2012 Special Session: Earthquakes and Tsunamis at Coastal Archaeological Sites

Dear colleagues,

We would like to bring your attention to a special session at the 2012 Annual Meeting of the Seismological Society of America (17-19 April, 2012, San Diego, California):”Earthquakes and Tsunamis at Coastal Archaeological Sites”.

Abstract: The study of earthquakes and tsunamis at coastal archaeological sites provides a view into their magnitude, timing, and severity. Earthquake and tsunami risk is particularly prevalent on the dynamic and sensitive coastal zones. Today, as in the past, people are drawn to this dynamic niche due to its broad resource base, often temperate climate, and access to trade routes. While the effects of gradual, annual, decadal, or millennial changes might be possible to mitigate, punctuated high energy events such as earthquakes and tsunamis can alter the coastline permanently in a matter of minutes to days, impacting the livelihoods of residents, damaging infrastructure, and remolding and modifying the coastline. Therefore, it is crucial to be well informed of past events as a reference for advising coastal management strategies and disaster preparation and response guidelines. Reconstructing past earthquake and tsunami events with the use of information from coastal archaeological sites can provide a more complete and informative database of tsunami and earthquake history. This session explores the records of earthquakes and tsunamis at coastal archaeological sites and methods for quantifying tsunami and seismic hazard parameters from archaeological data.

Session chairs:

• Manuel Sintubin <manuel [dot] sintubin [at] ees [dot] kuleuven [dot] be>
• Beverly N. Goodman Tchernov <goodmanbeverly [at] gmail [dot] com>
• Tina M. Niemi <NiemiT [at] umkc [dot] edu>

Deadline for abstract submission is 11 January, 2012.

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