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Gisborne Tsunami – it's happened before
Monday, 1 August 2005
Gisborne last saw major tsunami action in 1947 when Tatapouri was hit
by a 10 metre wave which washed out houses and the front of the local
pub, but fortunately didn’t kill anyone.
This has been New Zealand’s largest local tsunami in living memory
says Dr Alastair Barnett, a Fellow of the Institution of Professional
Engineers (IPENZ), who believes civil defence planners need to give tsunamis
the same attention given to comparable hazards such as floods and earthquakes.
Dr Barnett, a Fellow of the Institution of Professional Engineers (IPENZ),
is a Hydraulic Modelling Engineer and a renowned leader in tsunami hazard
control design who will be describing the implications of providing inundation
protection. “It has been mooted we should upgrade our early warning
systems, and while this should reduce casualties, it would do almost nothing
to reduce the economic impacts from damage to infrastructure and housing.
We need to make allowances for tsunami hazards a routine part of planning
for development,” he said.
Dr Barnett is one of three tsunami experts touring the North Island giving
the Institution of Professional Engineers (IPENZ) Pickering Lecture 2005.
Speaking in Gisborne on Tuesday 16 August 2005, the experts will be discussing
the devastation in the Indian Ocean from the Boxing Day Tsunami, the different
aspects of tsunami phenomena, and the impact the next tsunami could have
on the East Coast infrastructure and coastline.
Dr James Goff is a senior scientist at the National Institute of Water
and Atmospheric Research Ltd (NIWA) based in Christchurch. He says Tsunamis
have come in the past and they will come again to the region in the future
as history tends to repeat itself. Dr Goff will update our understanding
of Tsunami in Gisborne, share his concerns, and raise some questions about
the implications for the region.
Dr William Power, a scientist with the Institute of Geological and Nuclear
Sciences, is currently involved in modeling tsunami which reach New Zealand
from Sputh America, and he has been involved in calculating the propagation
of the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami.
IPENZ East Coast Branch
Date: 16 August 2005
Venue: Poverty Bay Club
Time: 7.00pm
Free Public Lecture
Contact: East Coast IPENZ Graham Mackey - 06 863 0453
The Pickering Lecture is so named after Sir William Pickering, an eminent
New Zealand engineer who worked on the US space programme. William Pickering
generously lent his name to this lecture series after he gave the keynote
address at the 2002 IPENZ convention.
Speakers:
E = mv 2:Einstein, energy and engineering for tsunamis
by Dr Alastair Barnett
Dr Alastair Barnett FIPENZ, is a Hydraulic Modelling Engineer, and his
firm Barnett & MacMurray Ltd are world leaders in tsunami hazard control,
and will be describing the implications of providing inundation protection.
He was a consultant on Te Papa.
Tsunami sources affecting New Zealand: What we know and what we need
to find out
by Dr William Power
Dr Power is a Scientist with GNS and has done modelling of tsunami waves
entering Wellington Harbour, and will explain the earthquake mechanisms
for triggering a tsunami.
Tsunamis from start to finish: What happens in your backyard
by Dr James Goff
Dr Goff is a senior scientist at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric
Research Ltd (NIWA) based in Christchurch.
For more information contact:
Kathryn McGavin
Branch Facilitator
Branchfacilitator@ipenz.org.nz
Phone: 04 473 9444 ext 821
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