This year, the SRC chose Understanding Tsunamis as the main theme for its Earth Science Week celebrations, focussing on raising awareness on tsunamis for students of schools in two coastal areas.

During Earth Science Week in October, the SRC in collaboration with the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management (ODPM), sponsored a group of geography students from Mayaro Secondary School - a small town on Trinidad’s east coast – to attend a student workshop at the SRC in St. Augustine. During the workshop, the students learned about the causes of tsunamis and how to recognize a tsunami’s natural warning signs. Students were also encouraged to share the information with family and friends.

Students of Cedros Secondary School benefited from a similar educational programme when a team from the SRC visited Bonasse Village - a fishing village along Trinidad’s southwestern peninsula - during Earth Science Week. In addition to learning about tsunamis, Cedros Secondary students planted trees along the beach as part of the SRC’s Tsunami Ready Environment & Education (TREE) event.

According to the Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) coastal forests can reduce the depth, force and velocity of a tsunami and other large wave events. “It was great that first the studentslearned about the potential impact of tsunamis and then they actually went outside and did something to reduce that impact on their community,” commented Dr. Robert Watts, SRC Volcanologist.

“Currently, there is a lot of work being done to establish a tsunami warning system for the Caribbean but we still have a long way to go,” said SRC Education Officer, Stacey Edwards. “In the meantime it is very important for people living and working in coastal areas to be able to recognize a tsunami’s natural warning signs and to be able to respond appropriately,” added Edwards.

The SRC partnered with the Department of Forestry in the Ministry of Agriculture Land & Marine Resources and the Trinidad & Tobago Meteorological Service and received generous sponsorship from First Citizens, ODPM, Neal & Massy Foundation, Scrip-J and Cool Connections Ltd.

CORE training at SRC

The University of the West Indies (UWI) Seismic Research Centre (SRC) launched a summer internship programme committed to indentifying future geoscientists and communications practitioners in May. The Centre’s new programme, called CORE (Creating Opportunity from Research Experience), was an eight-week internship for undergraduate and postgraduate students interested in pursuing careers in geosciences and related fields.

CORE interns worked closely with SRC staff on current research projects in volcanology, seismology, geology, software engineering, physics, mathematics, or public awareness and education. Interns received a stipend, and took part in career-enhancing field experiences, lab experiments and research exposure, which are designed to complement formal classroom instruction. The internship began with a full-day orientation and ended with an oral presentation to the project supervisor.

In 2009, its debut year, the CORE programme included three projects. The first involved the implementation of a public awareness campaign on tsunami and other coastal hazard warning systems within the participating states of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency (CDERA). This campaign was funded by United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Another project, which focused on computational signal processing and data acquisition, involved the development of seismic station health monitoring applications. The third project developed a study to test the sensitivity of geothermal systems.

For more information about the internship programme, please contact Joanna Minott, Internship Coordinator and Student Outreach Officer, at jminott@hotmail.com. For more information about UWI Seismic Research Centre, please contact Stacey Edwards, Education Officer at staceyedwards@uwiseismic.com or uwiseismic@uwiseismic.com or (868) 662-4659 or (Fax) 663-9293.