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CORVALLIS, Ore. - Researchers at Oregon State University are about to make some very big waves - literally. And in the process, they plan to help safeguard towns and cities on the Earth's coastlines from killer tsunami waves that are triggered by underwater earthquakes.

In what is now the largest and most-wired tsunami laboratory anywhere in the world, OSU College of Engineering researchers will launch one of the biggest human-generated waves of its kind this Saturday, Sept. 13, during a 10:30 a.m. dedication ceremony of the Tsunami Wave Basin. The facility is located at OSU's O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory, at 35th and Jefferson Street in Corvallis. The event is free and open to the public, as is a three-day open house scheduled for Oct. 16-18 at the wave lab.

Speakers at the dedication ceremony include OSU's new president Ed Ray; Bill Wulf, president of the National Academy of Engineering; John Brighton, head of the National Science Foundation's Engineering Directorate; Oregon state senator Frank Morse; and others.

By combining the latest in information technology with earthquake engineering, the new facility, funded by a $4.8-million grant from the National Science Foundation, will enable researchers anywhere in the world to participate remotely in real-time experiments conducted in the wave basin, which is almost twice the length of a basketball court.

"It was OSU's ability to blend cutting-edge information technology with civil and ocean engineering that helped us secure the NSF funding for this project," said OSU computer science professor Cherri Pancake. "The IT allows researchers and students anywhere in the world to observe experiments as they happen, use instant replay, or slow experiments down to study details that normally happen so fast they can't be observed. All it takes is a web browser."

In addition to tsunamis, the new wave basin will also help researchers better mitigate other natural coastal hazards such as beach erosion and flooding caused by rising sea level. Studies suggest that sea level could rise two to seven feet during the next century due to global warming.

The OSU facility can also be used to study the effects of boat wakes on coastlines like Puget Sound, determine how waves at the mouths of rivers like the Columbia can be more safely negotiated by ships, and create more effective breakwater designs.

Because more than half of the U.S. population resides within 50 miles of the nation's coastlines, it is critical to have effective warning systems and emergency shelters in place when a tsunami is generated, researchers say. Although tsunamis move at the speed of a jetliner, there is often 30 minutes or longer before the waves generated in the open ocean hit land, offering a window of time to orchestrate evacuation.

"Ultimately, this new e-tsunami facility will save lives, which is a big part of what engineering is all about," said Ron Adams, dean of OSU's College of Engineering. "This facility is an example of the type of research clusters we're building here in the college - groups of creative people from many different disciplines working together to discover solutions to complex problems. This is the new wave of engineering - where collaboration creates a collective synergy."

The OSU Tsunami Wave Basin is one of 15 linked sites in nine U.S. states funded by the NSF as part of the George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES). The Oregon State University facility is the first NEES site in the nation to come online, and much of the information technology developed by the university's computer scientists for the OSU site will be employed at the other 15 sites.

Because the OSU site is first to go online, interest in the wave basin has been keen.

"Construction is barely complete, and already we're getting calls from a wide range of researchers, media, and other people interested in the capabilities of this new facility," said Dan Cox, OSU ocean engineering professor and director of the O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory. "This has definitely put Oregon State University center stage in the world of tsunami research, and it's exciting that our research will make the world safer."

Josh Carter of Coast and Harbor Engineering, an Edmonds, Wash., company using the Hinsdale facility to research a better design for a Puget Sound breakwater, said, "this is definitely the most accessible wave facility we know of. It's incredible."

For more information about the Hinsdale Wave Research Lab, including K-12 outreach, educational tours of the facility, and a computer animated fly-through of the facility, visit the website: http://wave.oregonstate.edu/.