A story about an invisibility cloak is always guaranteed to turn a few heads. Another way to grab the attention of headline-skimming eyes is to mention tsunamis. So guess what? Now we have the ultimate headline-grabbing paper – it’s an invisibility cloak for a tsunami. (press release).

The paper is published in Physical Review Letters, and details theoretical and experimental results for a structure that would shield off-shore rigs, even small islands and possibly coastlines from the shock of a tsunami.

The structure is a compound dyke made up of obstacles arranged in such a way as to bend the tsunami round the object they’re surrounding invisible to the waves – analogous to the way an invisibility cloak can send certain frequencies of light waves in weird directions to hide an object.

The story, even with its trendy buzz-words – has picked up only a small amount of attention. But it isn’t quantity, it’s quality. New Scientist has a good explanation about how it actually works, suggesting that the circular arrangement of pillars acts as a kind of whirlpool, taking the tsunami’s force and sucking it into the circles.

Science Daily has the story, and it’s hit the blogosphere as well.

The paper is not just a theoretical proposition – the authors have actually made a small version to test their proposals, but it’s difficult to guess whether any oil companies, or governments will take the idea on board or not.