Chronology of tsunamis documented in sections of the coastal lowlands in East Primorye

Abstract

One of the fields in the study of how catastrophic events are manifested is investigation of sediments produced by historical and paleotsunamis. This infor� mation allows researchers to define the age, scale, and frequency of these events in the past. These studies are especially topical for the coasts of the Russian Far East where chronicles have provided almost no evidence and instrumental observations have been carried out only since the second half of the 20th century (1, 2). The longterm works on studying paleotsunamis have been being carried out in the Kuril-Kamchatka Region (3-5), but there are no data on the sediments of the historical and paleotsunamis for the continental coast of the Sea of Japan until the recent time. The Primorye is located in the rare seismoactive zones of Russia, and although most earthquakes in this region are deep focus ones, some strong shallow earthquakes of 5-7 in magnitude have been reported (6). Large tsu� namis in the region are related to the earthquakes whose epicenters are clustered along the narrow band of the shelf and submarine slope of the island of Japan, stretching to Moneron Island (2). Four large tsunamis were reported here during the 20th century: in 1907, 1940, 1983, and 1993; the effects of the last two events were investigated on the coasts of Primorye immedi� ately after the tsunami struck (1, 7, 8). The effects of these tsunamis on the natural and economic objects located in the coastal zone were also assessed, and the zonation of coasts in terms of tsunami hazard was car�