marine hazards

New digital project to tackle flood hazard

WireWall equipment being tested as waves over top the sea wall

The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) has today awarded the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) one of seven individual grants that will use cutting-edge digital technology to advance environmental outcomes.

Smart boulders measure fast and powerful seafloor avalanches

The heavy frame (800 kg) that was moved by the flow, copyright 2017 to MBARI

Robotic sensors disguised as boulders, or ‘smart boulders’, have been used to measure the initiation and evolution of huge seafloor avalanches for the first time, revealing some surprising findings that will help inform where best to lay the seafloor cables that keep the internet running.

Rare UK tsunami was caused by a storm

St Michael’s Mount

A tsunami which struck the Yealm estuary near Plymouth, UK in 2011 was caused by the weather, say scientists.

Scientists help explain size of the 2004 Sumatran tsunami

RV Sonne

The unusual geological characteristics of the seabed and underlying sediments south of the epicentre of the Boxing Day Sumatran-Andaman earthquake of 2004 contributed to the devastating power of the resulting tsunami, according to research by a US-led team involving University of Southampton researchers based at the UK’s National Oceanography Centre, Southampton.