Abstract:

The December 26, 2004 SumatraAndaman earthquake of MW 9.1 and the ensuing Indian Ocean tsunami and the March 11, 2011 Tohoku, Japan, earthquake of MW 9.0 and the ensuing tsunami and nuclear leakage resulted in tremendous disasters to the humankind. The consecutive occurrence of the two disasters fully exposed that up to the present our knowledge of the regularities of earthquake occurrence remains in a poor state, and showed that studies on the regularities of earthquake occurrence and the earthquake prediction/forecast should be continuingly intensified. In earthquake hazard assessment, efforts should be made to overcome the limitations arose from the empirical methods, and stress measurements should be enhanced to directly determine to what extent the fault approaches to rupture so as to directly evaluate earthquake hazard. All available data, such as seismological, geodetical, geological and geomorphological data, should be used to the full extent in earthquake hazard assessment, and the results from scientific research should be turned into practice to the best in earthquaketsunami disaster prevention and mitigation. Special attention should be paid to the integration of various data. Interdisciplinary collaboration in scientific research, cooperation between natural and social sciences, and communication between scientists and decisionmakers/public should be greatly strengthened. Multidiscipline and multiapproach earthquaketsunami monitoring including local tsunami monitoring, in undersea area and theoretical and applied studies on the earthquake rupture process should be intensified to promote our ability of earthquaketsunami monitoring, prediction/forecast and early warning.

Key words: SumatraAndaman earthquake, Tohoku, Japan, earthquake, tsunami, nuclear leakage, earthquake hazard, earthquake prediction/forecast, earthquaketsunami early warning