Finite-element simulations of the 5 February 1783 Calabrian tsunami

Abstract

Southern Calabria is one of the Italian coastal regions mostly affected by tsunami hazard. This work is a part of a wider study of the assessment of the tsunami hazard in the southern Calabria and eastern Sicily. The tsunami which we focus our attention on was the first of a series of events that were associated with the 1783 Calabrian seismic crisis that was one of the most catastrophic affecting southern Italy in historical times. The tsunami was generated by an I=XI earthquake: the isoseismal field is elongated in the direction of the Apennine chain and centered in the Gioia Tauro plain where the most relevant damage was reported. Several numerical simulations of the tsunami have been performed by means of a finite-element method based on the shallow-water equations with different sources. The Tyrrhenian sea facing southern Calabria, including the Messina Strait, has been covered by a triangle-based mesh. The numerical results, compared with the available historical observations, such as the polarity of the first arriving wave, the mean wave period, etc. enable us to evaluate the most reliable source mechanisms and locations.