Thematic Network on Disasters and Natural Hazards

Disasters affect everyone, with the toll emerging from the continued creation and continuation of vulnerabilities. Difficulties with hazards and risks in the Arctic include extreme cold, great distances, periods of darkness, rapidly changing weather and climate, and limited infrastructure. Difficulties with vulnerabilities threaten the sustainability of Arctic peoples and livelihoods. We need to become more proactive in training the next generation of disaster and natural hazard scientists and public safety policy and decision makers, especially to support Arctic Council actions across borders in the North. Our goal is to contribute to this future of better informed, evidence-based, and more collaborative approaches to public safety, especially reducing disaster risks over the long-term.

• Sharing of experiences and best practices, especially through workshops, education, and scientific projects.
• Development of courses and seminars in disasters and natural hazards.
• Integrated degree paths among our members, with the goal that all graduate students in the disaster and natural hazards sciences will spend some time at a partner university to gain a broader perspective.
• Propose and conduct joint research projects on risk-vulnerability-hazard links.
• Develop and test new societal initiatives and technologies for real-time monitoring, hazard and vulnerability assessment, and forecasting and warning.
• Link monitoring and exchange across borders.
• Develop best practices in stimulating vulnerability and risk reduction, as well as preparedness and planning, by everyone through realistic scenarios, education, and support for local leadership.
• Develop disaster-related science diplomacy, disaster diplomacy, and risk diplomacy activities, such as workshops, conference sessions, research projects, and publications with the Science Diplomacy Thematic Network.

• Koymans, M. R., de Zeeuw-van Dalfsen, E., Sepúlveda, J., Evers, L. G., Giniaux, J. M., Grapenthin, R., Hooper, A., Ófeigsson, B. G., Sigmundsson, F. & Yang, Y. (2023). Decades of subsidence followed by rapid uplift: Insights from microgravity data at Askja Volcano, Iceland. In: Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research. 442, 107890. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2023.107890 
• Greiner, S. H. M., Burchardt, S., Sigmundsson, F., Óskarsson, B. V., Galland, O., Geirsson, H., & Rhodes, E. (2023).Interaction between propagating basaltic dikes and pre-existing fractures: A case study in hyaloclastite from Dyrfjöll, Iceland. J. Volcanol. Geotherm. Res., 442, 107891. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2023.107891
• Parks, M., Sigmundsson, F., Drouin, V. et al. Deformation, seismicity, and monitoring response preceding and during the 2022 Fagradalsfjall eruption, Iceland. Bull Volcanol 85, 60 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00445-023-01671-y
• Yang, Y., Sigmundsson, F., & Geirsson, H. (2023). Joint Bayesian modeling of velocity break points, noise characteristics, and their uncertainties in GNSS time series: Far-field velocity anomalies concurrent with magmatic activity in Iceland. Geophysical Research Letters, 50, e2023GL103432. https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GL103432
• Lanzi, C., Drouin, V., Sigmundsson, F., Geirsson, H., Hersir, G. P., Ágústsson, K., Parks, M. M., Hreinsdottir, S., & Guðmundsson, Á. (2023). Pressure increase at the magma-hydrothermal interface at Krafla caldera, North-Iceland, 2018–2020: Magmatic processes or hydrothermal changes? J. Volcanol. Geotherm. Res., 440, 107849. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2023.107849
• Borisova AY, Melnik OE, Gaborit N, Bindeman IN, Traillou T, Raffarin M, Stefánsson A, Laurent O, Leisen M, Llovet X, de Parseval P, Proietti A and Tait S (2023) In situ probing of the present-day zircon-bearing magma chamber at Krafla, Northeastern Iceland. Front. Earth Sci. 11:1307303. doi: 10.3389/feart.2023.1307303
• Bindeman, I.N., Melnik, O.E., Guillong, M. et al. Age of the magma chamber and its physicochemical state under Elbrus Greater Caucasus, Russia using zircon petrochronology and modeling insights. Sci Rep 13, 9733 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-36793-y
• Bindeman, I.N., Melnik, O.E., Guillong, M. et al. Author Correction: Age of the magma chamber and its physicochemical state under Elbrus Greater Caucasus, Russia using zircon petrochronology and modeling insights. Sci Rep 13, 12114 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-39242-y

More information and past activities can be found here.

Video interview: Ilan Kelman, Lead of the UArctic Thematic Network on Disasters and Natural Hazards