Tsunami researchers Dr. Walter Dudley, John Kofel and John Coney of the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo traveled to Kaua‘i in late November to seek signs of ancient and modern tsunami on Na Pali. The team came up empty during
Tsunami researchers Dr. Walter Dudley, John Kofel and John Coney of the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo traveled to Kaua‘i in late November to seek signs of ancient and modern tsunami on Na Pali.
The team came up empty during their search, Dudley said Thursday, but hope to return to take core samples in Na Pali valleys to seek signs of tsunami.
“We would like to organize an expedition to explore several of the valleys in order to locate sedimentary deposits left by previous tsunamis,” Dudley said in a call to The Garden Island.
Dudley said the massive tsunami that hit South Asia on December 26 has drawn attention to the efforts of tsunami experts in Hawai‘i.
“Yes, they already are involved in a number of areas,” he said. “I expect that the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center on O‘ahu will be the primary agency helping to develop the proposed regional warning system for the Indian Ocean.”
He said education is the key in making residents of Kaua‘i aware of what to do when a tsunami strikes.
Dudley said the coring work should unveil when and where tsunami struck Kaua‘i, perhaps 100 or a 1000 years ago.
“We would be using a vibracorer – a mechanical device that works its way into the ground and produces a cylindrical sample of the layers of soil and sediment through which it bores,” Dudley said. “Tsunami sediments can have a very characteristic nature which permits identification of the deposits.”
Dudley is the chairman of the Scientific Advisory Council of the Pacific Tsunami Museum in Hilo on the Big Island, and a Professor of Oceanography at the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo.
On the Web: Pacific Tsunami Museum www.tsunami.org/
