Recent progress of tsunami hazard mitigation in China

Abstract

Since the disastrous aftermath of the 2004 Sumatra Tsunami (Indonesia) and the 2011 Tohoku Tsunami (Japan), China has made much effort to mitigate tsunami hazards. We briefly reviewed the progress of cataloguing, modeling, early warning and hazard analysis for tsunamis in China. Compiling a Chinese tsunami catalogue is a challenge at present due to a large number of inconsistent research results. In China, the numerical models widely used in engineering and related studies are developed by other countries, and the development of a domestic model is being funded by the Chinese government. The tsunami early warning system has been set up and used during the recent tsunami events, such as the Chile earthquake on February 27, 2010, and the Tohoku earthquake on March 11, 2011. Probabilistic tsunami hazard analysis (PTHA) in China has been used for the national zonation map. A test case of PTHA at Mirs Bay of South China was demonstrated. The test case supported the general view that a regional tsunami could be a great hazard to the south China coast.