Abstract
This research aims to study two of the historical tsunamis occurred in Taiwan during the 18th century and to reconstruct the incidents. The 1781 Jiateng Harbor Flooding, recorded by the Chinese historical document, Taiwan Interview Catalogue, took place on the southwest coast of Taiwan. On the other hand, the 1782 Tsunami was documented in foreign languages, with uncertainties of the actual time. Reasoning these historical events requires not only carefully examining the literature records but also performing the scenarios that match the descriptions. The Impact Intensity Analysis (IIA) is employed to locate possible regions of tsunami sources in order to reproduce the events. Numerical simulations based on the Cornell Multi-Grid Coupled Tsunami Model (COMCOT) analyze the influence of different types of tsunami generated both by submarine mass failures and seismic activities. Numerical results indicate that the source of the 1781 Jiateng Harbor Flooding is located very possibly at the South South-West side of Taiwan. However, simulation results and historical records put the existence of the 1782 Tsunami in doubt, and the possibility of storm surges could not be ruled out.
Highlights
One of the major hazards in coastal regions is inundation by water waves generated by different mechanisms such as storm surges, tsunamis, or meteotsunamis
From the sentences “Giant wave appeared and the water rose for tens of zhang high (1 zhang approximately equals to 3 - 1/3 m); People were swinging on top of bamboos; In few quarters, the water retreated quickly; The fisherman sailed on top of bamboos on raft; 185 When the wave ebbed, the rafters of the thatched roofs were all gone”, it was assumed the wave height that stuck Jiateng Harbor was about two meters, close to the wave height that could affect the costal infrastructures (Yu, 1994) or even higher, and ebbed in few quarters
It is recorded that the whole island of Formosa was inundated by ocean water till the foot of the mountains and forty thousand people were killed in the 1782 Tsunami event (Jäger, 1784)
Summary
One of the major hazards in coastal regions is inundation by water waves generated by different mechanisms such as storm surges, tsunamis, or meteotsunamis. Storm surges and meteotsunamis are known to be triggered by weather events associated with pressure changes. Potential tsunami hazard assessments in the South China Sea (SCS) have been extensively studied. Tsunami scenarios have been simulated and analyzed, but mainly focus on the Manila subduction zone as it holds potential for rupturing Mw > 8.0 earthquakes and could generate significant tsunami waves (Li et al, 2016; Liu et al, 2009; Megawati et al, 2009; Okal et al, 30 2011).
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