Restless earth - enabling prediction of hazards

Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis or landslides - natural disasters endanger billions of people worldwide and threaten their living space.

Such natural events cannot be prevented, but the impact can be reduced if we know more about the physical processes that can trigger such extreme events.

Our goal is therefore not only to find out where and how often these events occur, but also to understand the processes in the solid Earth system that can trigger such catastrophes. To do this, we analyze extreme events such as the 2011 earthquake in the Tohoku region of Japan and create modeling to predict possible cascading effects or events that are actually considered unpredictable. Our ambition is to develop new methods to better assess, simulate, and predict these geohazards and other hazards, such as the consequences of space weather. We use research infrastructures such as regional Earth system observatories in Chile and Turkey, global earthquake monitoring networks such as the GEOFON program, satellite missions, and advanced analytical and experimental laboratories.

Our research on geohazard prediction focuses primarily on urban regions and coastal areas that have been particularly affected by tsunamis in the past, for example. But we do not intend to stop at analysis alone: The newly gained knowledge is to be incorporated into political decision-making processes in order to mitigate the worst consequences of natural disasters.