Natural Disasters

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

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  • 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.
  • UB Engineer Leads AIDG-MCEER Mission to Meet "Dire" Need for French-Speaking Engineers in Haiti
    1/21/10
    The powerful aftershock that hit the already devastated city of Port au Prince on Jan. 20 has only intensified Haiti's need for French-speaking structural engineers who can immediately determine which of the structures left standing may still pose a threat to human safety.
  • UB Reaches Out to Haiti through Work of Earthquake Engineering Lab and University Relief Effort
    1/19/10
    The University at Buffalo's world-renowned earthquake engineering faculty, and the internationally diverse students who come here to train in this critical field, are always intensely interested in any earthquake that occurs. But for Pierre Fouche, who is working on his doctorate in earthquake engineering, the earthquake in Haiti had enormous personal significance. Fouche is Haitian and his family lives there.
  • Behavioral identification can help stop terrorists like Abdul Mutallab, researcher says
    1/6/10
    The effective use of multiple layers of intelligence gathering, including existing behavioral identification programs, could have excluded the murderous Farouk Abdul Mutallab from travel before he got anywhere near Northwest Flight 253.