Nicholas Neocles Ambraseys 1929-2012

Abstract

Online Material: Publications list. Nick Ambraseys died peacefully in his Putney home in London on 28 December 2012, a few weeks short of his 84th birthday. Born in Athens, Greece, 19 January 1929, he acquired his middle name from his father, Neocles Amvrasis, and, from his Alexandria‐born mother, Cleopatra Yambani, he learned Arabic. He was educated at the National Technical University of Athens, where he received a diploma in rural engineering in 1952. For his mandatory military service he chose the Hellenic Navy; and, in 1954 while still completing his navy duties, he was appointed to the staff of the Department of Fluid Mechanics at the National Technical University of Athens. During the time of his appointment in Athens (1954–1956), two events changed his life. The first was on 18 August 1955, when he married Xeni Stavrou, a happy event that Xeni recalls meant that Nick never learned to drive a car (she jests that in all the years she drove Nick around, he never provided her with an official chauffeur’s cap). Xeni and Nick left for London the next day. The second event occurred a year later. On 9 July 1956 a major earthquake near Amogas, roughly 80 km northwest of Santorini, generated the largest twentieth‐century tsunami in the eastern Aegean. Nicholas N. Ambraseys. He became interested in the study of the 1956 earthquake and its tsunami while investigating its impact on the stability of harbor works throughout the Greek archipelago. The study challenged his analytic skills but also triggered two interests that were to dominate his subsequent career: the study of earthquakes and the study of their historical records. His 1960 article discussing the 1956 tsunami lists 46 previous tsunamis from 1400 B.C. to that date and remarks that “in none of the references is the original source of …