In the lead up to our Annual Marine Science Forum on the 4th and 5th May, we will feature a post about each of the scientists presenting this year.

Dr Jane Sexton, Section Leader, Risk Analysis Methods, Geoscience Australia 

Jane Sexton joined Geoscience Australia in 2005 to work collaboratively with Australian Government agencies to understand tsunami risk. Jane now leads a team that aims to define the national risk from a range of natural hazards to support disaster resilience programs across the Australian Government. Prior to this, Jane had a number of roles with DSTO and applied research modelling positions.

Presentation title: Tsunami: how wet will you get?

Presentation outline: 

Before the tragic events of the Indian Ocean tsunami on 26 December 2004, Australia was not prepared for the tsunami threat. The Australian Government and emergency managers around Australia were asking the question – how wet could we get? Untangling this question is yet more questions of how often will tsunamis occur, how big can tsunamis get and where will tsunamis come from? Here, we will look at tsunami history in Australia, how tsunamis are generated and how tsunami modelling can be used to fill the gaps in our understanding and estimate the potential tsunami impact to the Australian community.