Dependence of tsunami wave maximal heights along a coastline on the source orientation

Abstract

The authors address an important problem of timely evaluation of tsunami danger after offshore underwater earthquake. In case of Japan it takes nearly 20 minutes for the wave to approach the nearest coast after the seismic event. In this paper we continue to study the influence of tsunami source parameters on the distribution of the wave heights along the coast. As a rule, tsunami wave heights have sharp maximums at selected points of the coast. So, after seismic event the wave may be dangerous only at a few locations. Numerical tests show dependence of the distribution of such maximal wave heights from the orientation of the initial sea bed (sea surface) displacement, which has a form close to reconstruction of historic event at South-East of Japan.