Earth Observatory of Singapore

Spotlight: Indonesia

Testing the Potential of Wave Gliders for Ocean Exploration and Seafloor Geodesy in SE Asia

Barbot's team is developing geophysical marine robots to probe the deformation of the seafloor. The end goal is to extend geodetic measurements offshore to better understand earthquakes, tectonic processes and tsunami hazards.

The Child of Krakatoa Awakes

At approximately 9:30pm local time (2:30pm GMT) on the 22 December 2018, a tsunami struck Indonesia’s Sunda Strait, which lies between the islands of Java and Sumatra, claiming over 430 lives. According to Indonesia’s disaster agency there are at least 1,500 injured, over 120 people still missing, and around 12,000 people have been displaced.

Our Encounter with the People of the Forest

Our most recent documentary short film, ‘People of the Forest: Orang Rimba,’ premiered at the Singapore Eco Film Festival in early September 2017. The short offers a brief but intimate look at the lives of the Orang Rimba, a minority group of a few thousand nomadic tribespeople who live throughout the forests of Jambi province in Sumatra, Indonesia.

How Bad Will the Haze Be in Singapore This Year?

How bad will the haze be in Singapore this year? Why was it so bad in 2013 and 2015? Channel NewsAsia brings together two experts to find out more.

Post-Disaster Damage Assessments: Room for Improvement?

On 25 April 2015, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Nepal, destroying buildings and infrastructure across 31 of Nepal’s 70 districts. Approximately 9,000 people lost their lives to the earthquake that day, 22,000 suffered from injuries, and eight million were affected. I arrived in Kathmandu one week after the quake to support the government of Nepal in various response and recovery activities.

Folklore and Farmers: The Role of Non-Scientists in Active Fault Research in Myanmar and Thailand

“We scientists usually think we know everything,” said Dr Wang Yu, a Research Fellow at the Earth Observatory of Singapore (EOS), “but when we go into the field, we start to realise that actually farmers have most of the important knowledge about the land, and that we are just visitors with lots to learn.”

Testing the Potential of Wave Gliders for Ocean Exploration and Seafloor Geodesy in SE Asia

Where Should We Rebuild After a Disaster?

In 2004, a devastating tsunami struck coastlines around the Indian Ocean. In a study of the long-term recovery of the city of Banda Aceh, Indonesia, we found that reconstruction aid provided mostly near the coast, combined with many people's preferences to move to safer areas instead, has had the unintended consequence whereby the poor have become disproportionately exposed to coastal hazards.

People-Coral-Mentawai

People–Coral–Mentawai is a documentary short about the methods used by scientists at the Earth Observatory of Singapore to develop a timeline of earthquakes in the West Sumatra region.

Annual Report 2016
Nepal is the home to stunning landscapes and the tallest mountain range in the world. It is also the site of the largest active continental thrust fault called the Main Frontal Thrust. The collision of the Indian subcontinent and the Eurasian plate, which began about 50 million years ago, is still building the tallest mountains in the world and has produced many large, catastrophic earthquakes along the way.