Next Generation Scientific Poster

CLIENT

Cluster of Excellence The Future Ocean

RESEARCH FIELD

Earth science

TYPE

Interactive Poster

YEAR

2014

The classical poster does often not offer enough space for the sheer complexity of the contents – texts, pictures, graphs and tables – used to convey scientific research today, causing an inability to communicate contents and statements concisely. The classical poster also lacks an appropriate possibility for continuous updates which are necessary in order to include newer research results and to do justice to today‘s constant changes of information.

The interactive poster is a new method of presenting scientific topics in an attractive way, offering the user an easier access to the contents and a clearly improved possibility of comprehension. The illustrated topics are supposed to function self-explanatory and long-lasting which means that the viewer can decide on the depth and duration of the information process.

The focus of the poster is on marine geology: seaquakes, submarine landslides and the tsunamis caused by them do not only pose an immediate danger. They have the potential to influence us on a long-term and global scale, as the examples of Sumatra 2004 and Japan 2011 have shown. Among the depictions there is a graph of the Storegga landslide: Through Frank Schätzing’s novel “Der Schwarm” this landslide became known outside the scientific community: About 8,000 years ago, a landslide about the size of Iceland caused a tsunami off the Norwegian coast and devastated large parts of Northern Europe.

The digital poster depicts causes, mechanisms and effects of such slides and explains typical situations which can cause underwater landslides. With the help of the poster the researchers want to explain the processes behind the bigger landslides and depict the most important factors which lead to instable slopes and as a consequence to submarine landslides. The research of “Dangerous Ocean” is one of eleven research fields of the Cluster of Excellence “The Future Ocean”.