Tsunami Hazard

We present a preliminary probabilistic tsunami hazard assessment of Canadian coastlines from local and far-field, earthquake, and large submarine landslide sources. Analyses involve published historical, palaeotsunami and palaeoseismic data, modelling, and empirical relations between fault area, earthquake magnitude, and tsunami run-up. The cumulative estimated tsunami hazard for potentially damaging run-up (≥1.5 m) of the outer Pacific coastline is ~40–80 % in 50 years, respectively one and two orders of magnitude greater than the outer Atlantic (~1–15 %) and the Arctic (<1 %). For larger run-up with significant damage potential (≥3 m), Pacific hazard is ~10–30 % in 50 years, again much larger than both the Atlantic (~1–5 %) and Arctic (<1 %). For outer Pacific coastlines, the ≥1.5 m run-up hazard is dominated by far-field subduction zones, but the probability of run-up ≥3 m is highest for local megathrust sources, particularly the Cascadia subduction zone; thrust sources further north are also significant, as illustrated by the 2012 Haida Gwaii event. For Juan de Fuca and Georgia Straits, the Cascadia megathrust dominates the hazard at both levels. Tsunami hazard on the Atlantic coastline is dominated by poorly constrained far-field subduction sources; a lesser hazard is posed by near-field continental slope failures similar to the 1929 Grand Banks event. Tsunami hazard on the Arctic coastline is poorly constrained, but is likely dominated by continental slope failures; a hypothetical earthquake source beneath the Mackenzie delta requires further study. We highlight areas susceptible to locally damaging landslide-generated tsunamis, but do not quantify the hazard.

An annotated bibliography of references relevant to tsunami hazard in Canada has been compiled. The bibliography lists published papers, books, monographs, theses, and readily available manuscript reports. Conference abstracts are generally included only when the information is unavailable elsewhere. Each entry includes a bibliographic reference as well as either an abstract (where available), summary, conclusions, introduction, preface or contents. The bibliography consists of two main parts. The first part includes the results of a thorough literature search for references pertaining directly to tsunami hazard in Canada. The references are arranged regionally, with different sections for Canada-wide references, and the Pacific, Atlantic, and Arctic coasts. Within each regional section, a list of general references is followed by more specific sections, e.g., for the Pacific coast: earthquake-induced tsunamis, landslide-induced tsunamis, meteorological tsunamis, and Pacific far-field sources. In turn, each regional section may include sub-sections pertaining to studies of historical and/or potential future tsunamis. Part 2 of the bibliography is a less exhaustive compilation of general tsunami references covering topics of tsunami science, tsunami hazard analysis, and studies of historical and pre-historic tsunamis from elsewhere in the world that may have relevance to studies of Canadian tsunamis.

Applying probabilistic methods to infrequent but devastating natural events is intrinsically challenging. For tsunami analyses, a suite of geophysical assessments should be in principle evaluated because of the different causes generating tsunamis (earthquakes, landslides, volcanic activity, meteorological events, and asteroid impacts) with varying mean recurrence rates. Probabilistic Tsunami Hazard Analyses (PTHAs) are conducted in different areas of the world at global, regional, and local scales with the aim of understanding tsunami hazard to inform tsunami risk reduction activities. PTHAs enhance knowledge of the potential tsunamigenic threat by estimating the probability of exceeding specific
levels of tsunami intensity metrics (e.g., run-up or maximum inundation heights) within a certain period of time (exposure time) at given locations (target sites); these estimates can be summarized in hazard maps
or hazard curves. This discussion presents a broad overview of PTHA, including (i) sources and mechanisms of tsunami generation, emphasizing the variety and complexity of the tsunami sources and their generation mechanisms, (ii) developments in modeling the propagation and impact of tsunami waves, and (iii) statistical procedures for tsunami hazard estimates that include the associated epistemic and aleatoric uncertainties. Key elements in understanding the potential tsunami hazard are discussed, in light of the rapid development of PTHA methods during the last decade and the globally distributed applications, including the importance of considering multiple sources, their relative intensities, probabilities of occurrence, and uncertainties in an integrated and consistent probabilistic framework.

"The Great East Japan moment magnitude (Mw) 9.0 earthquake occurred at 14:46 (Japanese Standard Time) on March 11th 2011. Significant seabed displacement generated thesubsequent tsunami, which caused significant damage in Iwate, Miyagi, Fukushima and Ibaraki Prefectures. As a result of this event over 19,000 people are dead or missing, with over 295,000 collapsed buildings along 600 km of affected coastline.

Reconnaissance-level analysis of evacuation preparedness and actions related to thetsunami has been carried out using semi-structured interviews with local disaster prevention officials and emergency services officials. Interviews were carried out in Tarō Town, Kamaishi City, Ōfunato City (Iwate Prefecture) and Kesennuma City, Minami-Sanriku Town, Ishinomaki City and Natori City (Miyagi Prefecture). The interviews covered tsunami
awareness, observations and response to natural and informal warnings; style and derivation of evacuation maps; official warning timing and dynamics; evacuation timing, mechanisms and issues; and vertical evacuation buildings – availability, designation, public awareness, utilisation, relationship to maps, and post-event review. The report also presents examples of
hazard and evacuation maps and signs employed in the Tōhoku region.

Experiences in Tōhoku during this event are relevant to tsunami mitigation activities in the State of Washington and in New Zealand, which co-funded this research. These areas have
local earthquake and tsunami risk posed by the Cascadia Subduction Zone and the offshore Hikurangi subduction margin, respectively. This report provides recommendations for further
development of tsunami mitigation activities in these areas, based on findings from the interviews.

Overall there was a 96% survival rate of those living in the inundated area of the municipalities visited. This can be attributed to mostly effective education and evacuation procedures. Schools education, hazard maps and exercises appear to be the most common forms of education. Community involvement in planning of evacuation maps, routes and buildings is common, with many places conducting regular community-level exercises. Hazard and evacuation maps lacked consistency and both maps and safe locations were generally designed for a tsunami height that under-represented the worst case scenario.

The natural warning of long ground shaking (reported as more than two minutes, and often more than three) was widely agreed as enough by itself to have triggered evacuation. Sea walls reduced effective observation of the natural warning of unusual ocean behaviour in many places, and fostered a false sense of security in some locations.

Although an early warning system is often seen publicly as key infrastructure in enhancing tsunami resilience, the expectation of official warnings (and their content) may have slowed the time taken for people to initiate evacuation in Tōhoku, compared to if there had been total reliance on natural warnings. Exposure to previous false ‘major tsunami’ warnings apparently led to complacency in this event, despite this earthquake feeling much larger than anything previously experienced. The philosophy of tsunami tendenko was shown to be a positive education tool which promoted immediate self-evacuation and save many lives.

Peoples’ movements during and after evacuation reveal that many people died unnecessarily due to delayed evacuation or non-evacuation as a result of social or parental responsibility, lack of education or scepticism of warnings. Widespread use of motor vehicles caused traffic congestion in some areas, when walking, running or cycling would have been much more effective and saved lives.

Many people returned to the evacuation zone too early in some places because they had not seen the wave arrive at the expected time given in official warnings, or because they
expected no more waves to arrive. It is critical that people have the awareness that the first wave may come later than estimated by rapid scientific analysis, and the largest wave may
not be the first.

The evacuation strategy in place at March 11th 2011 was appropriate in that it sent people to safe locations, used maps and community involvement and was regularly exercised in many
places. Some evacuation centres were not located far enough inland or on high enough ground because they were not designated using the worst-case tsunami inundation.

There was extensive effective use of both designated and informal vertical evacuation buildings. The most important considerations for effective use are sufficient height (in relation to expected inundation depth), reinforced concrete construction, community engagement, owner agreement, signage, 24-hour access and evacuee welfare. More than one building owner considered use of their building in evacuation as corporate social responsibility. To enhance evacuee safety it is prudent to minimise the opportunities for spilled accelerants such as oil, and debris such as logs in tsunami-prone locations."

SEE ALSO: Tsunami Vertical Evacuation Buildings - Lessons for International Preparedness Following the 2011 Great East Japan Tsunami, Journal of Disaster Research; http://www.fujipress.jp/finder/xslt.php?mode=present&inputfile=DSSTR000700070005.xml (requires free registration to access paper)

Synonyms:
Tsunami deposits; Tsunami sediments; Tsunamiite(s)

Definition:
Sediments eroded, reworked, transported, and deposited by a tsunami often generate deposits referred to as of tsunamigenic origin, hence tsunamigenic sediments. They are a result of tsunami inundation pending coastal conditions and availability of material. Tsunami deposits contain “exotic” materials of allochthonous provenance when compared to the sediments present at the location the tsunami struck.
Tsunami deposits are considered primary paleoseismic evidence when generated coseismically and can also be defined as off-fault instantaneous stratigraphic expressions of tectonic deformation (McCalpin 2009).
Tsunami is a Japanese word meaning “harbor wave” and was adopted by the scientific community to define long-period waves generated by the sudden vertical displacement of a large volume of water within a water basin (e.g., estuary, lake, sea, ocean).

Tsunamis symbolize one of the most harmful natural disasters for low-lying coastal zones and their residents, due to both its destructive power and irregularity. The 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, which attack the Andaman Sea coast of Thailand, resulted 5,395 of deaths and inestimable casualties, interrupted economies and social well-being in numerous coastal villages and caused in extreme alterations of both onshore and offshore coastal morphology. The Great Indian Ocean tsunami also highlighted that there are many missing jigsaw puzzle pieces in scientific knowledge, starting from the generating of tsunamis offshore to the countless influences to the marine ecosystems on the continental shelf, coastal areas and on land and to the economic and social systems consequences. As with all deposits that do not have a direct physical link to their causative sources, marine tsunami deposits must be distinguished from other deposits through regional correlation, dating and criteria for recognition within the deposits themselves. This study aims to provide comprehensive reviews on using Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) as a chemical proxy to discriminate tsunami related deposits from typical marine sediments. The advantages and disadvantages of this chemical tracer will be critically reviewed and further discussed.

El borde continental occidental de Suramérica es definido por un límite de placas convergentes, en el cual la corteza oceánica Nazca subduce bajo la corteza continental Suramericana y del bloque norandino. Esta condición geodinámica, determina una alta sismicidad para la región, caracterizada por la ocurrencia de eventos sísmicos de magnitudes importantes. La mayor proporción de eventos sísmicos en territorio ecuatoriano, ha tenido sus epicentros en la región costera, con un número importante en plataforma continental y piso oceánico, por lo que, las probabilidades de ocurrencia de tsunamis son bastante altas. La zona costera y el litoral de la provincia de Manabí, exhibe una diversidad de ambientes geomorfológicos en los que se conjugan diversos factores físico-naturales y antrópicos. A lo largo de la línea de costa manabita, observamos la coexistencia de acantilados, plataformas de abrasión, colinas, terrazas marinas, barras de arena, flechas litorales, islas barreras, playas, llanuras de marea, canales de marea, estuarios, deltas, planicies fluviales, planicies fluvio-marinas, manglares y bosques deciduos y matorrales secos. En Ecuador, algunos esfuerzos se han realizado respecto al estudio de los tsunamis, orientados a identificación y caracterización sedimentológica de susdepósitos, cartografía de la amenaza, modelaje de planes de evacuación, análisis de costo/beneficio sobre medidas de protección y, evaluación de la vulnerabilidad de la población y estructural. Este trabajo tiene como objetivo, sistematizar un conjunto de indicadores para la zonificación y construcción de una escala de vulnerabilidad geomorfológica de la costa manabita ante eventos de tsunamis, herramienta que coadyuvará a fortalecer los planes de evacuación y de gestión de riesgos asociados a esta amenaza. La metodología de trabajo ha contemplado la recopilación, clasificación y discriminación de la cartografía base y temática digitalizada e imágenes disponibles. Se ha realizado una primera aproximación de sectorización de la línea de costa, con base en criterios de homogeneidad del relieve y, en la sensibilidad de sus ambientes geomorfológicos, en términos de protección físico-natural relativa, (barreras ante el impacto hidráulico de un tsunami / áreas de sedimentos susceptibles a procesos erosivos por energía hidráulica). Esta sectorización permitió sistematizar un conjunto de indicadores de vulnerabilidad de los ambientes geomorfológicos, agrupados en: Hidrodinámicos marinos, geológicos, formas de relieve continentales, formas de relieve submarinas, biológicos y antrópicos. Se realizará un Análisis de Componentes Principales que permitirá obtener una primera idea de importancia de los indicadores de vulnerabilidad. La ponderación que se asignará a cada uno de los indicadores, para la construcción de la escala de vulnerabilidad geomorfológica, se realizará por el Método de las Jerarquías Analíticas. Se han definido siete sectores a lo largo de la línea de costa de Manabí: Cojimíes – Pedernales, Pedernales – Jama, Jama – Canoa, Canoa – San Jacinto, San Jacinto – San Lorenzo, San Lorenzo – Puerto Cayo, Puerto Cayo – Ayampe, para los cuales se discuten sus niveles de vulnerabilidad geomorfológica, siendo los sectores más susceptibles Cojimíes – Pedernales, Canoa – San Jacinto y San Jacinto – San Lorenzo, condicionados principalmente por la presencia de formas de relieve bajas, de topografía llana y escasa pendiente.

Starting with the second part of the topic, I note that, unfortunately for my fellow opponents, the topic will end with a complete collapse of nonsense fantasies that have taken root in the natural sciences for two hundred years. And how so carefully guarded by "specialists". In addition to the text, I will remind you of the graphic

Il Bacino del Mediterraneo ha una ricca storia di terremoti ed eruzioni vulcaniche, che si può ritenere nota a tutti: non credo ci sia qualcuno in Italia, in Grecia o in Turchia che non sia consapevole della elevata sismicità della regione dove vive. Lo stesso discorso vale probabilmente per le eruzioni vulcaniche.Chi in Italia non ha sentito parlare dell’eruzione di Pompei del 79 d.C., o di quelle che avvengono frequentemente a Stromboli o all’Etna? Il discorso è ben diverso invece pergli tsunami (detti anche maremoti). Si può ipotizzare che la maggior parte degli italiani non conosca i precedenti storici in Italia e negli altri Paesi del Mediterraneo e per questo motivo non consideri il fenomeno come un rischio concreto. Probabilmente, ciò è dovuto soprattutto al fatto che gli tsunami si verificano meno frequentemente dei terremoti. In Italia l’ultimo grande maremoto, con danni considerevoli e molte vittime, risale a oltre un secolo fa, in seguito al terremoto di Messina e Reggio Calabria del 1908. Quando non c’è la memoria diretta, è molto difficile tramandare la consapevolezza di un rischio. In casi come quello del 1908, poi, l’evento terremoto tende per la sua tragicità a oscurare l’evento tsunami. Tuttavia, basta guardare una carta che riporta il catalogo dei maremoti del Mediterraneo per capire come la sensazione di basso rischio sia fallace. Si notano infatti decine di tsunami che sono avvenuti in molte zone delMare Nostrum, da Gibilterra al Medio Oriente(Fig. 1, Maramai et al., 2014). I terremoti costituiscono la principale causa di tsunami, sia a livello globale che nel Mediterraneo, con una percentuale intorno all’80% del totale dei maremoti. Meno frequenti quelli indotti da frane ed eruzioni vulcaniche, eccezionali quelli da impatto di meteoriti. In particolare, sono i grandi terremoti di subduzione quelli che hanno il maggiore potenziale tsunamigenico. Basti pensare ai due mega-terremoti dell’Indonesia del 2004 e del Giappone del 2011, entrambi di magnitudo pari o superiore a 9, che hanno generato degli tsunami di decine di metri di altezza devastando le coste prossime all’epicentro del terremoto e propagandosi anche attraverso l’oceano Indiano e il Pacifico. A parte questi casi eclatanti, in cui sono stati stimati degli spostamenti del fondale oceanico fino a decine di metri, più spesso avvengono degli tsunami meno devastanti ma comunque dannosi. Nel Mediterraneo, le zone di subduzione dell’arco ellenico, di Cipro e probabilmente anche quella dello Ionio sono tra le aree a maggiore potenziale tsunamigenico; esistono poi altre aree sismiche marine o costiere che sono state in passato sede di terremoti tsunamigenici, come le coste nordafricane, il già citato Stretto di Messina, il basso Adriatico, il Mar Ligure (Fig. 1). Se è vero che la frequenza di questi eventi è minore di quella dei terremoti, bisogna considerare che il loro impatto può essere devastante. importante mettere in atto tutte le possibili azioni per mitigare il rischio.

Historically, the Nicobarese of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands have lived in isolation with sporadic cross-cultural contact. Relying on the traditional knowledge and the resources provided by their ecosystem, the indigenes subsisted independently in their tribal reserve until the Indian Ocean tsunami inundated the Nicobar archipelago. Post-tsunami, the ANI administration undertook massive humanitarian interventions in the southern Nicobar Islands. This article analyses the post-tsunami sociocultural change among the Nicobarese against the backdrop of the humanitarian aid administration that began in December 2004. The article specifically inquires into the post-tsunami strategic-spatial interventions in the Nicobarese ecological niche and argues that the change after the tsunami has been tacitly engineered through humanitarian interventions.

Emergency planning for the assessment of tsunami hazard inundation and of secondary effects of erosion and landslides, requires mapping that can help identify coastal areas that are potentially vulnerable. The present study reviews tsunami susceptibility mapping for coastal areas of Turkey and Greece in the Aegean Sea. Potential tsunami vulnerable locations were identified from LANDSAT ETM imageries, Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM, 2000) data and QuickBird imageries and from a GIS integrated spatial database. LANDSAT ETM and Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data derived by the SRTM-Mission were investigated to help detect traces of past flooding events. LANDSAT ETM imageries, merged with digitally processed and enhanced SRTM data, clearly indicate the areas that may be prone to flooding if catastrophic tsunami events or storm surges occur.

The 26 th December 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami (IOT) emanated from an Mw 9.2 earthquake that generated a 1600 km-long rupture along the Sumatran Megathrust and generated tsunami waves up to 30 m high. The IOT directly impacted the Bay of Bengal and east Africa, with over 283,000 people perishing. At the time, this catastrophic event was considered unprecedented and sparked intense investigations to test this claim. It is now believed that four pre-2004 IOT events have occurred in the last 2500 years, recurring every 550 to 700 years. Much of this information comes from Phra Thong Island, Thailand, where a sequence of four stacked sandsheets separated by organic units has been recognised and compared to the 2004 IOT event. Recently, ground-penetrating radar on Phra Thong Island identified a region that could not be explained by the known stratigraphy. The stratigraphy of the area was investigated from auger cores and pits, and several previously-unrecognised sandsheets were identified ...

Sulawesi, one of the biggest island in Indonesia, located on the convergence of two macro plate that is Eurasia and Pacific. NOAA and Novosibirsk Tsunami Laboratory show more than 20 tsunami data recorded in Sulawesi since 1820. Based on this data, determination of correlation between tsunami and earthquake parameter need to be done to proved all event in the past. Complete data of magnitudes, fault sizes and tsunami heights on this study sourced from NOAA and Novosibirsk Tsunami database, completed with Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) catalog. This study aims to find correlation between moment magnitude, fault size and tsunami height by simple regression. The step of this research are data collecting, processing, and regression analysis. Result shows moment magnitude, fault size and tsunami heights strongly correlated. This analysis is enough to proved the accuracy of historical tsunami database in Sulawesi on NOAA, Novosibirsk Tsunami Laboratory and PTWC.

Tsunamis symbolize one of the most harmful natural disasters for low-lying coastal zones and their residents, due to both its destructive power and irregularity. The 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, which attack the Andaman Sea coast of Thailand, resulted 5,395 of deaths and inestimable casualties, interrupted economies and social well-being in numerous coastal villages and caused in extreme alterations of both onshore and offshore coastal morphology. The Great Indian Ocean tsunami also highlighted that there are many missing jigsaw puzzle pieces in scientific knowledge, starting from the generating of tsunamis offshore to the countless influences to the marine ecosystems on the continental shelf, coastal areas and on land and to the economic and social systems consequences. As with all deposits that do not have a direct physical link to their causative sources, marine tsunami deposits must be distinguished from other deposits through regional correlation, dating and criteria for recognitio...

Over the past few years, several attempts have been performed to find alternative “chemical proxies” in order to discriminate “tsunami backwash deposits” from “typical marine sediments”. A wide range of statistical tools has been selected in order to investigate the sediments and/or terrestrial soils transportation mechanism during the tsunami inundation period by using several types of chemical tracers. To relate the physical and chemical characteristics of Typical Marine Sediments (TMS), Tsunami Backwash Deposits (TBD), Onshore Tsunami Deposits (OTD) and Coastal Zone Soils (CZS) with their synchrotron radiation based micro-X-ray Fluorescence (μ-SXRF) spectra, the μ- SXRF spectra were built in the appropriate selected spectra range from 3,000 eV to 8,000 eV. Further challenges were considered by using the first-order derivative μ-SXRF spectra coupled with Probability Distribution Function (PDF), Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) in order to ...

Understanding the tsunami cycle requires a simple method for identification of tsunami backwash deposits. This study investigates Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy followed by careful analysis of variance (ANOVA), Gaussian distribution, hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) and principal component analysis (PCA) for the discrimination of typical marine sediments and tsunami backwash deposits. In order to test the suitability of FTIR spectra as innovative methods for classifications of tsunami deposits, typical marine sediments and terrestrial soils were classified into three zones, namely zone-1 (i.e. typical marine sediments), zone-2 (i.e. including tsunami backwash deposits) and zone-3 (i.e. coastal terrestrial soils). HCA was performed to group the spectra according to their spectral similarity in a dendrogram and successfully separate FTIR spectra of all three sampling zones into two main clusters with five sub-clusters. The simplicifolious (i.e. single-leafed) type o...

The 26 th December 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami (IOT) emanated from an Mw 9.2 earthquake that generated a 1600 km-long rupture along the Sumatran Megathrust and generated tsunami waves up to 30 m high. The IOT directly impacted the Bay of Bengal and east Africa, with over 283,000 people perishing. At the time, this catastrophic event was considered unprecedented and sparked intense investigations to test this claim. It is now believed that four pre-2004 IOT events have occurred in the last 2500 years, recurring every 550 to 700 years. Much of this information comes from Phra Thong Island, Thailand, where a sequence of four stacked sandsheets separated by organic units has been recognised and compared to the 2004 IOT event. Recently, ground-penetrating radar on Phra Thong Island identified a region that could not be explained by the known stratigraphy. The stratigraphy of the area was investigated from auger cores and pits, and several previously-unrecognised sandsheets were identified ...

Tsunamis symbolize one of the most harmful natural disasters for low-lying coastal zones and their residents, due to both its destructive power and irregularity. The 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, which attack the Andaman Sea coast of Thailand, resulted 5,395 of deaths and inestimable casualties, interrupted economies and social well-being in numerous coastal villages and caused in extreme alterations of both onshore and offshore coastal morphology. The Great Indian Ocean tsunami also highlighted that there are many missing jigsaw puzzle pieces in scientific knowledge, starting from the generating of tsunamis offshore to the countless influences to the marine ecosystems on the continental shelf, coastal areas and on land and to the economic and social systems consequences. As with all deposits that do not have a direct physical link to their causative sources, marine tsunami deposits must be distinguished from other deposits through regional correlation, dating and criteria for recognitio...

On 8 May 1939, an earthquake (Ms7.1) occurred near the Azores archipelago, with an epicentre located close to the western end of the Gloria fault. Previous studies present different epicentre locations spreading over a large area, and two different types of focal mechanisms. Given these uncertainties, the interpretation of the seismological information in a complex tectonic environment between the Gloria Fault and the Terceira Ridge is a matter of debate. The event caused a small tsunami recorded in the Azores Islands. In this study, we use the tsunami observations and tsunami numerical modelling to select the earthquake fault rupture that best fits the tsunami observations. We consider the different focal mechanism solutions, perform tsunami numerical modelling, and compute synthetic tsunami waveforms at the tide gauge locations. We find that an earthquake caused by a low-angle dipping fault with dominant strike–slip movement generates a tsunami that reproduces well the record at Ponta Delgada tide gauge. Finally, in areas where earthquakes are rare, the study of ancient earthquakes must use all information available, namely tsunami observations and mareograph data.

Since Padang City is defined to have the most tsunami risk in Indonesia, there are many studies have been done to mitigate the tsunami disaster. One of the mitigation action for tsunamis is done by constructing tsunami shelters. The tsunami shelter structure must be designed to withstand during a big earthquake which occurred at first before the tsunami. Further, the structure should be able to restrain the tsunami attack along with the tsunami induced forces. Reinforced concrete is a material that has been widely used to build the existing shelter. This study describes the use of the composite material consist of H-section steel and reinforced concrete for the main structure of the tsunami shelter in Padang. Three-dimensional finite element method is used as the numerical tool to calculate the internal forces in the structure of the shelter. Based on the results of this study, it can be elaborated the advantages of the composite materials compared to the reinforced concrete for earthquake and tsunami resistant structures. One of those advantages is the relatively slim structure which resulting relatively smaller internal forces. The composite structure also requires relatively more economic foundation system compared to the reinforced concrete structure.

The occurrence of tsunami waves on the eastern Caribbean Venezuelan coasts during 5 Venezuelan (local) earthquakes (01-IX-1530, 15-VII-1853, 29-X-1900, 17-I-1929 and 9-VII-1997), have been confirmed through the search and evaluation of written accounts by primary sources (eye witnesses) of tsunami inundation during these events. Among the outcomes of this new assessment are: 1) the run-up heights of several of those tsunamis have been substantially reduced. In fact, maximum run-up heights for the 5 tsunamis are: 5-7 m at Cumaná for the 1530 event, 5 m at Barlovento and 3 m at the Neverí mouth for the 1900 tsunami, 3 m at western Cumaná for the 1853 and 1929 events and about 1 m for the 1997 earthquake. 2) These new estimates on wave heights for local earthquakes restrict the search for tsunamites by trenching and coring to mainly the first 500-m-wide strip from the coastline in low-lying flatlands. The source of these tsunami waves may be complex. Some are the result of coastal-submarine sliding (1929 AD, 1997 AD), tectonic slip on active strike-slip (or normal oblique slip) faults (1530 AD, 1900 AD) or combination of tectonic slip and sliding (1853 AD). Appropriate numerical modeling of tsunami wave generation , migration and inundation are urgently in need to understand these tsunami mechanics.

Scenarios represent a very useful technique for the definition and evaluation of tsunami hazard and risk for any given region, and a basic step in the frame of tsunami mitigation and preparedness and of sustainable coastal zone development. With the exception of very few countries, like Japan and the United States, emergency plans in the rest of the world have never taken serious care of tsunamis until the occurrence of the giant Indian Ocean tsunami on December 26, 2004. That event dramatically brought the problem of tsunami hazard and risk assessment to the general attention and showed the urgent need for implementation of tsunami early warning systems (TEWSs). The problem is particularly urgent for the Mediterranean countries that are known to have been attacked by numerous tsunamis in the past, several of which had catastrophic size and impact. This paper is an attempt to develop some simple scenarios of earthquake-generated tsunamis in the Mediterranean. We identify four different seismogenic areas in the western, central and eastern sectors of the basin. For each of them, we take into account a seismic fault capable of generating an earthquake with magnitude equal or larger than the highest magnitude registered in that region in historical times. Then we simulate numerically the ensuing tsunamis, highlighting the basic features of the wave propagation and roughly identifying the coastal sectors that are expected to suffer the heaviest tsunami effects. One of the most important outcomes is that these scenario tsunamis attack the nearest coasts within at most 15 minutes, which poses serious constraints for designing appropriate TEWS for the Mediterranean.

The creations of these papers had several purposes, which they arose on the basis of the results of the reaction of colleagues to previously published publications. It was interesting that the general basis for the formation of their impressions was the general scientific atmosphere in science. And she was comfortable and did not require new looks. When it became clear that the Megatsunami phenomenon was very powerful and left many traces on the earth's surface and in the history of human development, there was a need to spread new information. But this information was met with no interest. Although the presence of analogues of erratic rocks on the Atlantic coast in Namibia should have been of great interest to all.
It is worth noting here that Megatsunami, as a very dangerous phenomenon, was mentioned in the Third Fatima’s Secret. The case was interesting. It is described in the Appendix.

Understanding the tsunami cycle requires a simple method for identification of tsunami backwash deposits. This study investigates Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy followed by careful analysis of variance (ANOVA), Gaussian distribution, hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) and principal component analysis (PCA) for the discrimination of typical marine sediments and tsunami backwash deposits. In order to test the suitability of FTIR spectra as innovative methods for classifications of tsunami deposits, typical marine sediments and terrestrial soils were classified into three zones, namely zone-1 (i.e. typical marine sediments), zone-2 (i.e. including tsunami backwash deposits) and zone-3 (i.e. coastal terrestrial soils). HCA was performed to group the spectra according to their spectral similarity in a dendrogram and successfully separate FTIR spectra of all three sampling zones into two main clusters with five sub-clusters. The simplicifolious (i.e. single-leafed) type o...