Chapter 5 - What Do We Learn for the Source Characterization from Numerical Modeling?

Abstract

The numerical simulation of tsunamis helps substantially in better understanding the tsunami source mechanisms. In this chapter some characteristic examples of tsunamis that occurred in the European and Mediterranean region are examined: (a) seismic tsunamis: December 28, 1908, Messina Straits; July 9, 1956, South Aegean; May 21, 2003, north Algeria; (b) volcanic tsunamis: LBA tsunami in Thera; (c) landslide tsunamis: February 7, 1963, west Corinth Gulf; December 30, 2002, Stromboli. In spite of the extensive work done to try to understand the source mechanisms of the 1908, 1956, and 2003 seismic tsunamis through numerical simulations, it is still undecided whether these waves were produced either by coseismic fault dislocation or by seismically induced landslides or both. The source mechanism of the LBA Thera tsunami, one of the largest reported ever in the region under study, also remains unresolved so far since different scenario mechanisms, such as caldera collapse, pyroclastic flows and submarine landslides, are well reconstructed by different simulation experiments. The observational data sets available for the landslide tsunamis of 1963 (Corinth Gulf) and 2002 (Stromboli) fit the synthetic results obtained by numerical simulations excellently. This is because the field observations available for both events are accurate and precise.