Natural Disasters

News about UB’s research and advocacy in extreme events and disaster response. (see all topics)

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  • Haiti's Engineers Begin New Chapter of Study: Seismic Design and Construction
    7/15/10
    Before the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake, Haiti's engineers and architects had received little, if any, formal training in seismic design and construction principles. Haitian universities didn't offer any courses or programs that were dedicated to earthquake engineering.
  • Haiti Takes Major Step toward Earthquake Resilience, with Help from UB's MCEER
    5/27/10
    Last weekend at a university campus in Port-au-Prince, where not a single building withstood the January earthquake, more than 200 Haitian engineers, architects and other professionals gathered in tents in temperatures hovering near 100 degrees F to begin learning the principles of earthquake-resistant design.
  • Can a Bridge Built in Days, Not Months, Survive a Major Earthquake?
    5/18/10
    The major earthquake that "struck" a 70-ton, 60-foot-long concrete bridge today in the University at Buffalo's Structural Engineering and Earthquake Simulation Laboratory will help engineers evaluate if a fast, new construction method results in bridges strong enough to withstand seismic activity.
  • Powerful Quake to Test New Bridge Construction Method
    5/12/10
    A magnitude 7.0 earthquake will strike at the University at Buffalo on May 18 as researchers conduct tests on a 70-ton, 60-foot-long concrete bridge in the university's massive Structural Engineering and Earthquake Simulation Laboratory (SEESL).
  • Ash Crisis May Not Be Over, Says Leading Volcanologist
    4/21/10
    Air travel may be resuming in some European countries, but Michael F. Sheridan, PhD, a leading volcanologist and founder of the University at Buffalo's Center for Geohazards Studies, says that the future behavior of both the volcanic ash cloud and the eruptive system that spurred it is difficult to predict.
  • Volcanic Ash Research Shows How Plumes End up in the Jet Stream
    4/16/10
    A University at Buffalo volcanologist, an expert in volcanic ash cloud transport, published a paper recently showing how the jet stream, the area in the atmosphere that pilots prefer to fly in, also seems to be the area most likely to be impacted by plumes from volcanic ash.
  • UB Engineer Heads to Chile to See How Hospitals and Their Contents Fared
    3/4/10
    The University at Buffalo engineer who developed the world's first apparatus designed to realistically test how building contents, architectural components and equipment (called nonstructural components) fare during earthquakes will leave for Chile on March 5 on a week-long reconnaissance mission to see firsthand what kind of damage hospitals and tall, engineered buildings sustained during Saturday's powerful, 8.8 magnitude earthquake.
  • Flight 3407 Anniversary Likely to Trigger Anxiety and Grief, Says UB Trauma Expert
    2/8/10
    Friday's one-year anniversary of the crash of Continental Flight 3407 will almost certainly trigger anxiety and fear among those personally affected by the tragedy. And a University at Buffalo expert on trauma and loss says those with a less-immediate, but still important connection to the tragedy can also expect a recurrence of anxiety or grief.
  • UB Geographers Help Map Devastation in Haiti
    2/8/10
    In the wake of the earthquake in Haiti, University at Buffalo geography students are participating in a global effort to enhance the international response and recovery effort by helping to assess damage, using images hosted by Google Earth and the Virtual Disaster Viewer, which shares imagery of disasters from various sources.
  • UB Earthquake Engineer Reports from Haiti
    1/26/10
    Days after arriving in earthquake-ravaged Port-au-Prince, a team of French-speaking structural engineers led by Andre Filiatrault, PhD, University at Buffalo civil engineering professor and director of the Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research (MCEER), headquartered at UB, was appointed by the United Nations as its interim lead coordinating team for organizing and initiating building assessments.