The Department of Mathematics and Natural Sciences organised a seminar on one of the ways of detecting tsunamis on its premises in BRAC University on 28 June 2018.
Titled “Tsunami source estimation using time reverse imaging method”, the seminar focused on reconstructing the initial sea surface displacement that generates a tsunami.
Professor AFM Yusuf Haider, the department’s chairperson, gave the welcome address while Assistant Professor Md Jakir Hossen was the keynote speaker.
Earthquakes are movements of landmasses of up to several metres and lead to the creation of giant waves or tsunamis when occurring underwater, leading to 8,000 deaths every year according to the United Nations, said Dr Jakir.
That is why early warnings are so important, he said, adding that the time reverse imaging method takes real-time data from ocean sensors to recreate what tsunami look like before they were created.
The method is computationally efficient, providing accurate and realistic predictions of tsunami waveforms, he said.
Dr Jakir received his PhD in Mathematical Geophysics from the Australian National University, Australia in 2015 for his investigations on tsunami source inversion where he developed a new approach on “Green's Function based Time Reverse Imaging”.
This method has potential to be used in tsunami warning for reducing loss of life and properties of the coastal communities.