Photo-Thailand-Satun-Ocean-2005
Image: The Andaman Sea. View east toward the coast of Satun Province, near Libong Island. Photo by CE Gregg, March 31, 2005. Chris' research involves studies of how society interfaces with natural hazards and risk communication, in addition to the physical hazards themselves. Recently he has worked mainly on volcano and tsunami hazards, but he has also worked on a range of coastal hazard issues, including severe storms and hurricanes, flooding, karst, and ground subsidence.  Chris spent 7 years working as a consulting geologist for Law Engineering (now http://www.mactec.com/). In this capacity he worked on groundwater assessment and remediation projects at private commercial and industrial sites and US energy and defense installations.
 Thailand Along with colleagues from the USA, New Zealand, Australia, and Thailand, Chris has worked on a project that seeks to understand how people experienced and responded to a range of environmental and social cues and informal warnings during the 26 December 2004 M9.3 earthquake and tsunami and a separate M8.7 earthquake and tsunami warning on 29 March 2005. The project collected data in 2005 under and NSF grant, which was used to develop educational materials under a later USAID grant. Participating scientists and their institutions are: Bruce Houghton (University of Hawaii), David Johnston (Massey University and GNS Science, New Zealand), Douglas Paton (University of Tasmania, Launceston), Roy and Janet Lachman (University of Houston), and Supin Wongbusarakum (East-West Center, Hawaii). for the USAID work, we also teamed with the Save Andaman Network of Thailand.
United States  This is a longitudinal study of tsunami preparedness and effectiveness of warnings in six communities in the coastal USA, including: Kauai, Hawaii; Kodiak, Alaska; Ocean Shores, Washington; Seaside, Oregon; Coronado, California; and Wilmington, North Carolina. Funding is provided by the National Science Foundation. Participating scientists and their institutions are: Bruce Houghton (University of Hawaii), http://www.sociology.msstate.edu/faculty/socfaculty/gill.php (Mississippi State University), David Johnston (Massey University and GNS Science, New Zealand), Douglas Paton (University of Tasmania, Launceston), and http://ibs.colorado.edu/directory/profiles/?people=ritchiel (University of Colorado).
Vulcano  This project is developing an integrated model of geological risk, using seismic and volcanic hazards on Vulcano Island, Italy as a case study. Funding is multi-national, but in part by an ETSU Major Research Development Committee Grant. The project PI is Costanza Bonadonna, University of Geneva.
Mariana Islands  A study of evacuees of Pagan Island during the 1981 eruption of Pagan Volcano in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands began in 2006.  The research, led by Daisy Wheeler and co-supervised by Chris Gregg and Frank Trusdell (USGS, Hawaiian Volcano Observatory), focuses on understanding the role of trust and beliefs about hazards and risk among the original surviving evacuees and their descendents.
Hawaii  Chris is involved with study examining the impacts of the 1959 eruption of Kilauea Volcano at Kilauea Iki. Funding is provided by a grant from the NSF (BF Houghton, PI, University of Hawaii).