During the past 300 years, tsunamis have killed or left missing more than half a million people and wreaked tens of billions of dollars in destruction. Saving lives and minimizing damage requires a deeper understanding of how tsunamis form and behave. Fortunately, there’s Stéphan Grilli.
For the better part of two decades, the University of Rhode Island professor of ocean engineering has made one of his life missions understanding the science behind these devastating waves.
“It’s about saving lives,” Grilli says. “The number-one goal is not publishing papers.”
Last year in Japan a single tsunami left at least 15,800 people dead, a nuclear power plant in meltdown and hundreds of thousands of people displaced. The Japanese prime minister called it the biggest crisis since World War II.
Since the tsunami struck, Grilli and his team of researchers and students have sought answers about how the tsunami – with waves up to 65 feet – formed and how scientists can predict a future one.
Even before the Japanese tsunami struck, the U.S. government had grown concerned that such a wave could hit North America. After a 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean left more than 200,000 people dead, Congress authorized the nationwide expansion of the National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program. As part of the program, Grilli and University of Delaware Professor James Kirby oversee the development of tsunami inundation maps for the East Coast. The maps will allow emergency officials to develop a response plan for a tsunami warning.
A strike, Grilli says, is “a matter of when, not if.” Deep under the ocean, tectonic plates are pushing tighter and tighter together like a spring under increasing pressure. Eventually, the spring will release, creating a sudden shift in the seabed that will send massive waves racing toward the coast.
The effects are modeled with the aid of computers and a team of graduate students, who find themselves at the epicenter of a field with new appreciation.
“The research is much more relevant when you wake up one day and it’s in the news,” post-doctoral research fellow Jeff Harris says. “It’s nice to know you’re doing something that matters.”
The work matters around the globe. This summer Grilli traveled to France, Greece, Spain and South Korea to collaborate with researchers or speak about his research. He has led research cruises and appeared in documentaries on Korean television, the Discovery Channel and E! Entertainment. At least 500 academic papers cite his paper detailing the fundamentals of tsunamis caused by underwater landslides.
Tayebeh Tajalli Bakhsh wrote some of those papers. While studying in Iran, she longed to meet Grilli. So when she learned he offered a graduate assistantship she applied to URI without a second thought.
Today in an office next to Grilli, Tajalli Bakhsh expands on Grilli’s research. She hopes to return to Iran and become the country’s resident expert on tsunamis.
“Grilli is the expert and has very high standards and goals,” she says. “I’m sure when I graduate I can say I am a professional and I’ve mastered the topic.”