Current Activities

2011 Missouri Tornado (May 22, 2011)

NIST to conduct technical study on impacts of Joplin, Mo., tornado The May 22, 2011, massive tornado that struck Joplin, Mo., was rated category EF5, the most powerful on the Enhanced Fujita scale. It impacted an area approximately three-quarters of a mile wide by 14 miles long, destroyed some 8,000 structures in its path, and killed more than 150 people. This makes it the single deadliest tornado in the United States in the 61 years that official records have been kept. Because of the tornado's widespread destruction across a range of building and construction types, along with the tragically large death toll despite a comparatively substantial warning time, NIST is conducting a full technical study of the impacts of the disaster. >> More


2011 Texas Wildland Fires (February 2011)

Collaborative Effort, NIST and the Texas Fire Service (TFS)  Recent wildland fires outside of Amarillo, Texas that destroyed 70 homes, burned more than 25,000 acres of land, and caused nearly $6 million in property damage, will soon be the most thoroughly investigated and scientifically evaluated events of their kind, thanks to a collaborative effort between NIST and the Texas Forest Service (TFS).  During a three-week reconnaissance, a NIST-developed data collection methodology was used to acquire approximately 163 gigabytes of data and more than 11,000 photographs to document two of the blazes, now known as the Willow Creek and Tanglewood Complex fires.  This massive amount of accumulated information will now become the foundation for a NIST-TFS study assessing the impact of the two wildfires on structures in the region.  >>More

2011 New Zealand Earthquake (February 22, 2011)

NIST Researcher Joins ACSE Reconnaissance Team  A NIST researcher joined the initial reconnaissance team from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Structural Engineering Institute (SEI) that went to Christchurch, New Zealand in April of 2011, to explore the causes of damage to infrastructure as a result of the magnitude 6.3 earthquake on February 22.

2010 Chile Earthquake (February 27, 2010)

NIST Engineer Serving on Chilean Quake Research Team  In March of 2010, a NIST research structural engineer was deployed to Chile as a member of a large multidisciplinary team of experts documenting the effects of the Feb. 27, 2010, earthquake in that country. The Chilean quake measured 8.8 on the Richter scale, equivalent to a force of 16 million kilotons of TNT, making it one of the most powerful earthquakes of the last 100 years.