HR: 14:30h
AN: OS23B-04 INVITED    [Abstracts]
TI: Tsunami Hazard Awareness from past Experience and the Differing Vulnerability of Indigenous and Immigrant Coastal Populations
AU: * Day, S J
EM: sday@pmc.ucsc.edu
AF: University of California Santa Cruz, Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences, University of California Santa Cruz, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95060, United States
AB: The high mortality rates (10 percent to over 90 percent) amongst tourist and immigrant populations caught in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami contrast both with the lower mortality where local warnings were effective, and with historically low mortality rates in several major tsunamis in Papua New Guinea and the South West Pacific. These include early 20th Century events in which responses to the tsunamis were based upon oral traditions that existed amongst indigenous populations. Eyewitness accounts of one of these events, the 1930 Ninigo Islands tsunami in Papua New Guinea, indicate that people in coastal villages recognized warning signs such as initial drawdown of the sea, and evacuated inland before the tsunami struck with intensities comparable to the 2004 tsunami in Thailand. Maximum runups exceeded 15 meters on Karkar Island and were 5 to 10 meters around much of the Bismarck Sea. Although many villages were severely damaged, only 12 people were killed. The mortality rate was less than 1 percent and perhaps as little as 0.1 percent of the population in the inundation zones. Interviews with populations who have lived on coasts for many generations indicate a high level of tsunami awareness including oral traditions of earlier historical events and traditional beliefs regarding tsunamis and earthquakes. The generally low mortality rates in these events indicate that self - warning and voluntary evacuation constitutes a highly effective tsunami mitigation measure amongst indigenous peoples. The challenge today is to develop similar behaviors amongst immigrant and transient populations in tsunami prone areas through Education for Self - Warning and Voluntary Evacuation (ESWAVE): the efforts of volcanologists after the 1985 Armero lahar disaster provide pointers as to how this can be done.
DE: 4546 Nearshore processes
DE: 4564 Tsunamis and storm surges
DE: 8488 Volcanic hazards and risks
SC: Ocean Sciences [OS]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting