Tide of disasters raises Oregon State tsunami center's profile

Story Posted: Wed, Sep 19, 2007

Coastal safety - A new wave-maker will add hurricane studies to the Corvallis center's capabilities

Wednesday, September 19, 2007
RICHARD L. HILL
The Oregonian Staff

CORVALLIS -- Skeptics grumbled when one of the world's most advanced tsunami research centers opened four years ago in the middle of the Willamette Valley. Was the $5.4 million state-of-the-art facility needed?

When a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami killed 230,000 people throughout the Indian Ocean a year later, the answer was a resounding "yes."

The 2004 disaster put the O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory at Oregon State University -- especially its new sensor-packed Tsunami Wave Basin -- on scientists' maps. Wave researchers from throughout the world set their sights on the lab to gain a better understanding of tsunami behavior and their impact on shorelines and structures such as piers, buildings, bridges and lighthouses.

"We no longer had to justify our existence," said Daniel Cox, the wave lab's director. "Not only did it make people more aware of what our facility offers, but it focused more attention on the tsunami threat on the Northwest coast."

Two years after Hurricane Katrina killed more than 1,700 people on the Gulf Coast, the OSU facility is receiving even more attention. The National Science Foundation awarded OSU $1.1 million to install a wave-maker that simulates the waves generated by hurricanes and storm surges.

The hurricane wave-maker will be the nation's largest when it's completed late next year, said Cox, an associate professor of civil engineering. The piston-driven device will enable the OSU lab to create the long-period waves and high wave heights characteristic of hurricanes and other extreme storms.

As with the instrument-packed Tsunami Wave Basin, engineers will be able to set up experiments and models to simulate the effects of hurricane waves. The findings can lead to safer and more cost-effective designs of low-lying coastal structures such as levees and bridges.

More than half of the U.S. population lives within 50 miles of the coast, and more than $3 trillion in infrastructure is vulnerable to coastal storms. As a warming climate raises sea levels, such storms are expected to have a bigger impact.

Researchers now use the 50-yard-long tsunami tank to study hurricane waves. This week, engineers from Colorado State University in Fort Collins are using the Tsunami Wave Basin to examine the impact of hurricanes on a scale model of a two-story wood-frame condominium building.

John van de Lindt, a Colorado State associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, is working on the project with Rakesh Gupta, an OSU associate professor of wood science and engineering. The research is a first step toward designing homes that could better survive storm surges and hurricanes.

Scientists from the University of Hawaii and Princeton University are using the Corvallis center to find out what happens when tsunamis hit different parts of buildings.

In December, Japanese researchers will visit the wave lab to examine a small replica of Seaside's downtown that Cox and his colleagues built to study the impact of a tsunami.

"Our program is similar to a program they have, so we want to make comparisons," Cox said. The measurements taken from the artificial tsunamis hitting the Seaside replica will be used to make computer simulations that could determine where residents might seek shelter in tall buildings if a large earthquake off the Oregon coast triggered a tsunami.

The Oregon scientists are studying the feasibility of a "vertical evacuation" in which many residents flee into taller well-built buildings on Seaside's west side, rather than evacuating to higher areas east of the city.

"We're looking at a lot of 'what if' scenarios," Cox said. "We're just starting to scratch the surface about this vertical evacuation idea."

Scientists have produced overwhelming evidence in the past 25 years that the Oregon coast is vulnerable to tsunamis produced by earthquakes near the coast. Coastal residents and visitors would have only 15 minutes to 30 minutes to escape a tsunami after a near-shore earthquake.

According to one estimate, a 10 percent to 14 percent chance exists that a powerful quake and tsunami could strike the coast in the next 50 years. The Northwest coast sits along the Cascadia Subduction Zone, where colliding plates have caused large earthquakes numerous times in the past. The last such event was a magnitude 9 quake in 1700 that produced a 30- to 35-foot-high tsunami.

Scientists aren't just using the wave facility to study the impact of waves on buildings. They also want to study how mangroves, marshes and other vegetation can buffer populated areas from storm waves and tsunamis.

"Ecological engineering and coastal greenbelts to reduce the effects of waves is a big topic right now," Cox said. "We want to know how effective those measures would be."

The 4-year-old Tsunami Wave Basin, funded by the National Science Foundation, is only one part of the 35-year-old Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory. The lab also houses a 15-foot deep, 12-foot-wide Large Wave Flume, a channel that stretches a little longer than a football field. Scale models of jetties, oil drilling rigs, pipelines and other structures can be placed in the channel to determine how they respond to different kinds of waves.

"Making a big wave isn't tricky," Cox said. "You can go to Disney World and see big waves being made. The thing here is to make precise, repeatable waves and produce detailed computer simulations that can aid engineers in designing safer buildings and communities.

"This is basic research that has a practical purpose. It can save lives."

Richard L. Hill: 503-221-8238; richardhill@news.oregonian.com