Dear EOS Community, 

Looking back on 2021 as Director of the Earth Observatory of Singapore (EOS), I am proud of EOS’ achievements as we adapted to numerous challenges associated with COVID-19, while focusing on critical research and producing impactful studies on geohazards and climate change. 

I am indebted to the Administration Office who has worked hard to provide valuable support for research and educational efforts throughout the disruptions caused by COVID-19. Their specific responses to COVID helped to ensure health and safety in the office. All this while, they have also kept the administrative process running while adhering to changing practices of working in the office and working remotely.

Producing excellence in research

As with most of 2020, we...

On 25 October 2010 at 9:42 PM local time, the people living on the southern Mentawai islands, a chain of islands located off Sumatra, Indonesia, felt a slow, gentle rocking of the rocks below their feet1. Initial reports of the earthquake indicated that a magnitude-7 to -7.2 earthquake had occurred seaward of the islands2. Five to 10 minutes later, a large wave inundated the western coasts of the islands, locally flooding areas more than 10 metres above the ground surface1. Together, the earthquake and tsunami killed more than 400 people and left 300 missing.

Such a large tsunami would typically require an earthquake of magnitude greater than 8. In this case, while the early data from the Mentawai earthquake suggested a much smaller event, a more complete assessment of...

Bangladesh, a densely populated country of over 160 million people, regularly faces climate hazards caused by flooding and typhoons. However, another natural hazard lies silently beneath the country: active tectonic faults. The fault system below Bangladesh is estimated to be able to generate an earthquake of magnitude 8.5 or greater – a phenomenally dangerous possibility, given that it lies only a few kilometres below the surface. Such an earthquake would also trigger secondary hazards: liquefaction, flooding, and possibly even abrupt shifts in the course of rivers. Despite its extreme hazard, this fault system remains poorly understood.

Bangladesh sits on the eastern border of the collision zone between India and Eurasia, where the Indian plate is subducting eastward...

Coastal communities face several hazards including tsunamis triggered by offshore earthquakes and volcano eruptions as well as storm surges generated during tropical storms.

Deposits left behind by these events provide important clues for the reconstruction of past events, enabling scientists to correctly forecast the risk posed by tsunamis and storms. This knowledge is of paramount importance for the estimated 600 million people living in coastal areas below 10 metres (m) above sea level.

One long-standing challenge has been to differentiate between sediments laid down by these storms and tsunamis. For more than 30 years, scientists were unable to distinguish between the deposits using regular methods such as sediment analysis and micropalaeontology.

But...