The coastal zone is home to over a billion people. Rising sea levels are already impacting coastal residents and aggravating existing coastal hazards, such as flooding during high tides and storm surges.
The coastal zone is home to over a billion people. Rising sea levels are already impacting coastal residents and aggravating existing coastal hazards, such as flooding during high tides and storm surges.
However, new research by assistant professor Tina Dura and professor Robert Weiss in the College of Science's Department of Geosciences indicates that future sea-level rise will also have impacts on the heights of future tsunamis.
“In 50 to 70 years, sea level is going to be significantly higher around the world,” said Dura, who is also an affiliate of the Center for Coastal Studies, an arm of the Fralin Life Sciences Institute. “If a tsunami strikes in that time frame, the impacts that you're estimating for today are going to be greater. I think that coastal geologists and modelers alike need to consider sea-level rise in future models and hazards assessments.”
Their findings were published in Nature Communications.
Read more at Virginia Tech
Image: Fralin Life Scientes Institutes' Tina Dura (right) conducts research with colleagues Richard Briggs (United States Geological Survey) and Simon Engelhart (Durham University) on an island off the coast of Alaska. Photo courtesy of Rich Koehler for Virginia Tech. (Credit: Virginia Tech)
