Natural Disasters

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

Meet an Expert
  • Better Assessment of Ash Cloud Hazards is Goal of UB Volcanologist's Research
    9/10/10
    A University at Buffalo volcanologist who is an expert in volcanic ash clouds and their impact on air travel is available to speak with news media about new scientific research he is conducting on better assessing the hazards of volcanic ash clouds.
  • Post-Katrina Effects on St. Bernard Parish Police Officers to be Studied
    8/30/10
    A University at Buffalo researcher will spend the next two years studying post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the long-term effects of Hurricane Katrina on police officers who worked during the disaster.
  • What Have Engineers Learned from Katrina?
    8/26/10
    Five years after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, James N. Jensen, PhD, University at Buffalo professor of civil, structural and environmental engineering, says that probably the biggest lesson learned from that disaster was that municipalities and citizens now take orders to evacuate much more seriously. Jensen was one of six UB researchers that visited the Gulf Coast soon after Katrina hit, as part of a National Science Foundation-funded reconnaissance mission organized by UB's Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research.
  • 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.