Coastal Hazards Laboratory

Dr. Tina Dura specializes in subduction zone paleogeodesy, which combines the methods of coastal stratigraphy, sedimentology, micropaleontology, paleoseismology, geophysical and sediment transport modeling, and sea-level research to reconstruct long-term histories of coseismic vertical deformation and tsunami inundation along subduction zone coastlines. ​

The Coastal Hazards Laboratory at Virginia Tech is part of an interdisciplinary Coastal Hazards group at Virginia Tech, and is also affiliated with the Center for Coastal Studies at Virginia Tech, Global Change Center, and Fralin Life Sciences Institute. The Coastal Hazards Laboratory is also leading the Paleoseismology Working Group (CPAL) in the Cascadia Region Earthquake Science Center (CRESCENT), CRESCENT will be the first center of its kind in the nation focused on earthquakes at subduction zones, and will provide a systematic approach to collaboration between researchers in academia and those in agencies that have mandates to produce hazard information that stakeholders, practitioners, and the public at large can trust and use in the Pacific Northwest of the United States.

People

Chile

Alaska

Cascadia

Japan

Diatoms

Recent news

Media

• 09/08/2023 Award: Dr. Tina Dura has received a $650,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to conduct paleoseismic research along the Cascadia subduction zone as part of the $15 million Cascadia Region Earthquake Science Center (CRESCENT). CRESCENT will be the first center of its kind in the nation focused on earthquakes at subduction zones, and will provide a systematic approach to collaboration between researchers in academia and those in agencies that have mandates to produce hazard information that stakeholders, practitioners, and the public at large can trust and use in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. 
• 08/15/2023 Media: The Coastal Hazards Lab was featured in an article in the VT News highlighting their work on the Oregon coast to better prepare people living along the Cascadia subduction zone for future earthquake and tsunami events. https://news.vt.edu/articles/2023/08/science-tina-dura-cascadia-subduction-zone.html
• 06/08/2023 Media: A documentary producer and film crew from Oregon Public Broadcasting visited the Coastal Hazards Lab in June to interview and film members of the lab regarding their work reconstructing past earthquakes and tsunamis along the coast of Oregon. The documentary will air in winter 2024. Stay tuned! 
• July 2023 Award: Coastal Hazards Lab PhD student Mike Priddy was awarded a Geological Society of America (GSA) research grant in the amount of $2,500 for his work mapping the true inland extent of Cascadia tsunami deposits at the Salmon River estuary, Oregon. He'll use this money to fund his fieldwork this fall. 
• July 2023 Fieldwork: The Coastal Hazards Lab conducted microplastics fieldwork on the Eastern Shore in July. The Lab will collaborate with microplastics researchers in the Biology department to analyze microplastics concentration in sediment cores and determine their composition and concentration through time. (photos attached)
• June 2023 Award: Coastal Hazards Lab PhD student David Bruce was awarded a Seismological Society of America (SSA) Student Presentation Award following his poster presentation at the SSA meeting in Puerto Rico. He presented on "Variability in Diatom-Based Coseismic Subsidence Estimates Over Multiple Earthquake Cycles in a Southern Oregon Tidal Wetland, Cascadia Subduction Zone."
• 09/26/2022 New publication: Seismic Sources in the Aleutian Cradle of Tsunamis - Eos. Available as a PDF here and here: https://eos.org/features/seismic-sources-in-the-aleutian-cradle-of-tsunamis
• 05/02/2022  New publication: Modeling Coastal Environmental Change and Tsunami Hazard available as a PDF here and here: www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.871794/full​
• 03/24/2022  New publication: The giant 1960 tsunami in the context of a 6000‐year record of paleotsunamis and coastal evolution in south‐central Chile in Earth Surface Processes and Landforms available as a PDF here and here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/esp.5363​
• 03/01/2022  New publication: The response of foraminifera to rapid sea-level rise from tidal restoration of Ni-les' tun marsh, Oregon, USA available as a PDF here and here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0025322722000287
• 1/31/2022 News article in AGU Eos about recent Alaska tsunami publication available here: https://eos.org/articles/rising-seas-boost-tsunami-impacts-on-distant-shorelines​
• 12/08/2021  News article in the Virginia Tech News about recent Alaska tsunami publication available here: https://vtx.vt.edu/articles/2021/12/fralinlifesci-tsunami-modeling-sea-level-rise.html
• 12/08/2021  New publication: Changing impacts of Alaska-Aleutian subduction zone tsunamis in California under sea-level rise available in Nature Communications here (PDF) and here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-27445-8
• 9/02/2021  News article in the Virginia Tech News about recent Chile and Japan Coastal Hazard lab publications available here: https://vtx.vt.edu/articles/2021/09/science_Dura_geologists_look_to_past.html
• 9/02/2021  New publication: Tsunami reconstruction and modeling paper from the Tokyo region in Nature Geoscience available as a PDF here and here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-021-00812-2​
• 7/30/2021  New publication: Modern dataset of diatoms of Willapa Bay, Washington USA. Available as a PDF here and open access here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0377839821000748?via%3Dihub
• ​7/22/2021  New publication: North-central Chile tsunami paper in Quaternary Science Reviews led by PhD student Jess Depaolis. Available as a PDF here and open access here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277379121002596
• 1/21/21  Public lecture recording: Tina Dura Detect Talk public lecture available to view here
• 1/12/21  New publication: Cascadia subduction zone review paper in Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Science available a PDF here and here: https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev-earth-071620-065605​
• 12/10/20  New publication:  New Review in Nature Reviews Earth and Environment looking at measuring, modeling, and projecting land subsidence available as a PDF here and here:  https://www.nature.com/articles/s43017-020-00115-x

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