IASPEI - Picture Gallery

IUGG XXIV General Assembly July 2-13, 2007 Perugia, Italy
(S) - IASPEI - International Association of Seismology and Physics of the Earth's
Interior
JSS002 Oral Presentation 1781
Archiving of tsunami event data
Dr. Laura Kong
International Tsunami Information Center IOC of UNESCO IASPEI
Charles S. Mccreery
Since the 1990s, more than 15 tsunamis have been significant enough to cause damage locally or
regionally. International post-tsunami survey teams have been deployed to collect measurements of
runup, flow depth, inundation, scour, sediment deposits, and eyewitness observations of the arriving
tsunami wave. At the same time, sea level time series recordings of tsunami events are sought out by
scientists, who often first inquire to the tsunami warning centers, such as the Pacific Tsunami Warning
Center (PTWC) in operation since 1949, since they are often the first to know that a tsunami has
occurred. As a United Nations tsunami-dedicated information resource since 1965, the International
Tsunami Information Center (ITIC) receives information starting immediately after the PTWC issues a
watch or warning notification. Much of these data are shared with tsunami researchers and
professionals through ITIC's Tsunami Bulletin Board list serve. The ITIC also regularly publishes a
newsletter and hosts an event web site which starts to compile tsunami event information and data
soon after an event occurs. For long-term archiving, the National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC),
which hosts the World Data Center for Solid Earth Geophysics Tsunamis (WDC-Tsunamis), has the
mission to preserve and archive relevant, quality-controlled data for all significant tsunami events.
Recognizing the long-standing commitment of these three international organizations to tsunamis and
the important value to researchers and hazard mitigation specialists of high-quality, verified, and
authenticated information on tsunamis, the NGDC, ITIC, and PTWC propose to work collaboratively
together to collect, synthesize, quality-control, catalogue, and archive all available data and
observations from significant tsunami events. Within this context, a common standardized catalogue
schema will be established by reviewing existing databases and soliciting input from data providers and
users to determine a system that best meets everyones needs. The group will seek input from the IUGG
Tsunami Commission, its members, and especially its working groups that have been tasked to collect
data from the December 26, 2004 tsunami. The effort plans to build upon and enhance existing
capabilities and services of the NGDC and ITIC with the goal of developing more efficient and thorough
mechanisms for seeking out data, for encouraging the contribution of observations by both scientists
and the public, and for making quality collected information available to many in a user-friendly
environment. In this talk, we will review the status of our quality control efforts and present tools for
collaboration, user input, and data access.
Keywords: tsunami event, sea level data, archive