Science Pub - Go Up Or Get Out? What Will We Do When the Tsunami Hits Oregon? November 8, 2007

Join us at 7:00 pm on Thursday, November 8 for:

Go Up Or Get Out? What Will We Do When the Tsunami Hits Oregon?
with Dan Cox, associate professor at Oregon State and director of the O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory. http://wave.oregonstate.edu/About_Us/People/dancox.html

Suppose you're enjoying a weekend at Seaside and you feel the ground shake - what would you do? The current plan calls for you to follow a marked evacuation route downhill and across two rivers to a designated area 1-1/2 miles from the water's edge. Do you think you could make it? At night? In the rain? With the family dog in tow?

The Cascadia Subduction Zone is the sleeping giant of the Pacific Northwest, a massive fault running from Northern California to British Columbia, similar in many ways to the Sumatra fault that created the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. The odds of the fault letting loose in the next 50 years are about 7 to 1, and people will have about 15 to 20 minutes before water strikes the coast.

In Japan, a country that has lived with tsunamis for centuries, they are perfecting tsunami evacuation strategies using a method called vertical evacuation. In southeast Asia, there are numerous stories of survivors from the 2004 tsunami who reached safety by going up. But, there are risks with this vertical strategy. How do we know the structure will survive the initial earthquake? Can a structure be built to withstand a tsunami?

At this Science Pub, we'll explore tsunami science, the engineering behind vertical evacuation, and how we might have to rethink our tsunami evacuation strategy when the giant awakes.

When: Thursday, November 8
Presentation begins at 7:00pm and will last around 1.5 to 2 hours. Come early if you want to order food and drinks!

Where: Luna, 30 E. Broadway, Eugene http://www.lunajazz.com/

The Science Pub is held every second Thursday of the month at Luna in downtown Eugene http://www.lunajazz.com/, and is co-sponsored by OMSI http://www.omsi.edu, the University of Oregon, College of Arts and Sciences http://cas.uoregon.edu/ and the Science Factory http://www.sciencefactory.org/.

The Science Pub is open to anyone and everyone.
Ask your friends and colleagues to join you! No RSVP is necessary.
Questions? E-mail sciencepub@omsi.edu or call 503.797.4517.
For a description of upcoming Science Pubs, please visit our website.

Official Website: http://www.omsi.edu/sciencepub