Tsunami Currents Research Articles

Bolide impact effects on the West Florida Platform, Gulf of Mexico: End Cretaceous and late Eocene

Abstract This study documents seismic reflection evidence that two different bolide impacts significantly disrupted stratigraphic and depositional processes on the West Florida Platform (Gulf of Mexico). The first impact terminated the Late Cretaceous Epoch (Chicxulub impact, Mexico; ca. 66 Ma; end-Maastrichtian age). The second took place in the late Eocene (Chesapeake Bay impact, Virginia, USA, portion of the Chesapeake Bay; ca. 35 Ma; Priabonian age). Both impacts produced far-reaching seismic shaking and ground roll followed by an impact-generated tsunami, the effects of which are evident in the seismostratigraphic record. The Chicxulub seismic shaking caused collapse and shoreward retreat of the Florida Escarpment and widely disrupted (faulting, folding, slumping) normal flat-lying shelf beds. The associated tsunami currents redistributed these shelf deposits and mixed them together with collapse debris from the escarpment to form a thick wedge of sediments along the base of the escarpment. The Chesapeake Bay impact created a mounded sedimentary deposit near the outer edge of the late Eocene ramp slope. This deposit also has a bipartite origin. A lower layer is marked by en echelon faulting created in situ by seismic shaking, whereas an upper layer represents sediments redistributed from the late Eocene shelf and upper ramp slope by tsunami-driven bottom currents (debris flows, contour currents, slumps). This is the first report of seismic effects from the Chesapeake Bay impact in the Gulf of Mexico. These results further demonstrate that large-scale marine bolide impacts have widespread effects on the stratigraphic and depositional record of Earth.

Sediment hardness and water temperature affect the burrowing of Echinocardium cordatum: Implications for mass mortality during the 2011 earthquake–liquefaction–tsunami disaster

The heart urchin Echinocardium cordatum is an important bioturbator in shallow marine environments throughout the world. Although hard sediment and low water temperature are known to decrease the burrowing ability of benthic invertebrates, the effect of these factors on E. cordatum, one of the most important bioturbators, has remained unknown. Here, we quantified the burrowing ability (i.e., burrowing time) of this species in an aquarium where sediment hardness and water temperature were artificially controlled. The aquarium experiment revealed that both sediment hardness and water temperature significantly affected the burrowing time of E. cordatum. No significant interactions were detected between the two factors. Under hard-sediment and low-temperature (10 °C) conditions, reburrowing times for E. cordatum were around 3.5 times longer than with soft sediment and high temperatures (20 °C). The burrowing time in the hardened sediment due to liquefaction at low temperatures was compared with the observed in-situ interval between the occurrence of an earthquake and the first arrival of a tsunami. The results provide useful insights into the mass mortality of the species that was observed on the Pacific coast after the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and associated liquefaction and tsunami events on March 11, 2011. Rapid reburrowing would have been vital at the time to prevent individuals from being swept away by tsunami currents after being expelled from the seafloor sediments by the seabed liquefaction. However, our results indicated that E. cordatum would not have been able to easily reburrow into the seafloor sediment, thereby becoming vulnerable to tsunami currents. This would have resulted in the heart urchin's observed mass mortality and prolonged absence from the region after the disaster.

On the possibility of seismic recording of meteotsunamis

We use the horizontal components of land-based seismometers in the vicinity of shorelines to apply to meteotsunamis the deconvolution algorithm introduced by Okal (Pure Appl Geophys 164:325–353, 2007) in order to recover time series of tsunami amplitudes from seismic recordings. For a selected set of seven such events recorded at 16 seismic stations, we obtain equivalent wave amplitudes and horizontal polarizations, the latter expressing the directions of particle motions at the surface of the sea. Our amplitudes are generally on the same order of magnitude as available regional records or reports, and the direction of tsunami currents is found mostly parallel to the relevant shorelines. In particular, seismic records available at three Spanish stations suggest that the unexplained waves which killed twelve people in Mostaganem, Algeria in 2007, had a meteorological origin. Our results, of an exploratory nature, suggest that seismic records could play an important role in the further understanding of the structure of meteotsunamis.

Performance assessment of Tsunami-HySEA model for NTHMP tsunami currents benchmarking. Field cases

In this study, we present model results derived from the Tsunami Current Benchmarking Workshop held by the NTHMP (National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program) at Portland, Oregon, US, in February 2015 for the two benchmark problems dealing with field data. In this workshop, the Tsunami-HySEA model was used to perform the five proposed numerical benchmarks. The other three benchmarks, which are based on lab data, are the subject of a related paper (Macías et al., 2020). The results and comparisons with measured data for the two benchmarks which deal with field observations, described in the present paper, include: (1) Benchmark #2, impact of tsunami waves at Hilo Harbor, Hawaii, and (2) Benchmark #3, tsunami currents at Tauranga Harbor, New Zealand, both for data of the 2011 Tohoku tsunami. The numerical results demonstrate that the Tsunami-HySEA model is able to accurately reproduce sea surface elevations and current velocities for both the benchmark problems performed in a reduced local domain as in the case of the complete scenario modeled from the source to Hilo Harbor on the Pacific Ocean.

Experimental study of scouring downstream of coastal vegetation in an inundating tsunami current

Local scour by inundating tsunami currents on the land side of coastal forests can greatly decrease the tsunami mitigation advantage of the forest by producing driftwood. The purpose of this study was to analyze the scour profiles inside and behind a forest model (FM) due to the flow passing through it, and to compare the scour phenomenon around fixed and moveable bed cases within the FM. Two series of flume experiments were conducted by changing initial water depths (water depth without FM in the flume, ho = 3 cm to 7 cm), densities of FM (dense G/d = 0.25, intermediate G/d = 1.09, and sparse G/d = 2.13, where G = clear spacing between each cylinder in a cross-stream direction, d = diameter of a cylinder) and vegetation thicknesses (dn) of 180, 380, and 580 No.cm. In series 1 and 2, experiments were performed with a fixed bed inside FM for the three vegetation densities and for moveable bed case only for the intermediate density, respectively. Downstream scour profiles behind FM, backwater rise, and water surface gradient inside FM were investigated. For the fixed bed case, minimum scour was measured in the intermediate FM case for the three densities of 180, 380, and 580 No.cm. In the fixed bed inside FM, the location of maximum scouring moved away from the downstream end of FM while in cases of a moveable bed inside FM, the location of maximum scour moved towards the downstream end inside FM. Scour inside coastal forest damages the trees; therefore, it is recommended to stabilize the bed inside the forest by planting grasses, etc., if there is no constraint on the light environment inside the forest and the space behind the forest where local scour occurs.

Extracting clearer tsunami currents from shipborne Automatic Identification System data using ship yaw and equation of ship response

We have explored tsunami current signals in maritime Automatic Identification System (AIS) data during the 2011 Tohoku, Japan, tsunami. The AIS data were investigated in detail taking into account ship motion and response to tsunami current. Ship velocity derived from AIS data was divided into two components in terms of the ship heading: heading-normal and heading-parallel directions. The heading-normal velocity showed good agreement with the simulated tsunami current, as mentioned in our former research. Here, we found the heading-normal velocity was contaminated by non-tsunami noises that were mostly related to the ship yaw motion around the pivot point. The noises due to the yaw motion were reasonably corrected in the heading-normal velocity. The corrected heading-normal velocity clearly showed better agreement with the simulated tsunami current. Although the heading-parallel velocity is basically the navigation speed, and is mostly controlled by ships’ captain, we could find the heading-parallel velocity was also drifted by tsunami currents. The corrected heading-normal velocity was still a ship response to the tsunami current. Based on an equation of a ship response to tsunami currents, we numerically estimated tsunami current from the corrected heading-normal velocity. We could find very slight improvements in estimating the tsunami currents, which indicated that this operation possibly worked as a secondary correction. Tsunami currents of tens of centimeters per second are expected to be suitably detected using AIS based on discussion on detection limit.

Performance assessment of the Tsunami-HySEA model for NTHMP tsunami currents benchmarking. Laboratory data

The Tsunami-HySEA model is used to perform the five numerical benchmarks proposed in the “NTHMP/MMS Benchmarking Workshop: Tsunami currents”. Many different model configurations and sensitivity studies were performed for the different benchmarks, combining numerical methods of first, second, and third order, different friction laws, varying friction coefficients and numerical resolutions, or even different implementations of the boundary conditions. In this work, we include the three benchmark problems dealing with laboratory data, which are BP1 (truncated submerged circular cone), BP4 (Seaside, Oregon, city building model), and BP5 (solitary wave over a complex shelf). Benchmark 1 appeared to be the most difficult one of all for non-linear shallow water (NLSW) models due to its high sensitivity to parameters and the very complex wake structure occurring behind the submerged island. For the rest of the benchmark problems, a good fit was obtained with measured data. An initial version of the Tsunami-HySEA model implementing dispersion was used to reproduce BP4 and BP5. In the related paper Macías et al. (2020), the results corresponding to the two benchmarks dealing with field data that were proposed in the Benchmarking Workshop are described in detail.

Measuring offshore tsunami currents using ship navigation records

We investigated ship navigation records known as Automatic Identification System (AIS) data near the source region of the 2011 Tohoku, Japan, tsunami. The AIS data of 16 ships in the offshore navigation could be compiled by about 40 min after the tsunami generation. Most of the AIS data showed notable deviation of the ship heading from the course over ground during the tsunami passage. There was good agreement in terms of amplitude/phase between the ship velocity and the simulated tsunami velocity in the direction normal to the ship heading. An equation of motion due to wave drag and inertia forces was examined for an offshore movable floating body. We explain that the ship movement in the direction normal to the heading immediately responds to the tsunami current, and relative velocity between the ship and the tsunami current asymptotically become zero. This indicates the movement velocity of navigating ships in the direction normal to the heading derived from AIS data will work as an offshore tsunami current meter. We examined the AIS data during the 2011 Tohoku tsunami and showed these data could be useful for tsunami source estimation and forecast. The AIS data in the current framework will possibly be a crowd-sourced tool for monitoring offshore tsunami current and tsunami forecast.

Maritime tsunami evacuation guidelines for the Pacific Northwest coast of Oregon

Recent tsunamis affecting the West Coast of the USA have resulted in significant damage to ports and harbors, as well as to recreational and commercial vessels attempting to escape the tsunami. With the completion of tsunami inundation simulations for a distant tsunami originating from the Aleutian Islands and a locally generated tsunami on the Cascadia subduction zone (CSZ), the State of Oregon is now able to provide guidance on the magnitudes and directions of the simulated currents for the Oregon coast and shelf region. Our analyses indicate that first wave arrivals for an Aleutian Island event would take place on the north coast, ~ 3 h 40 min after the start of the earthquake, ~ 20 min later on the southern Oregon coast. The simulations demonstrated significant along-coast variability in both the tsunamis water levels and currents, caused by localized bathymetric effects (e.g., submarine banks and reefs). A locally generated CSZ event would reach the open coast within 7–13 min; maximum inundation occurs at ~ 30–40 min. As the tsunami current velocities increase, the potential for damage in ports and harbors correspondingly increases, while also affecting a vessels ability to maintain control out on the ocean. Scientific consensus suggests that tsunami currents < 1.54 m/s are unlikely to impact maritime safety in ports and harbors. No such guidance is available for boats operating on the ocean, though studies undertaken in Japan suggest that velocities in the region of 1–2 m/s may be damaging to boats. In addition to the effects of currents, there is the added potential for wave amplification of locally generated wind waves interacting with opposing tsunami currents in the offshore. Our analyses explore potential wave amplification effects for a range of generic sea states, ultimately producing a nomogram of wave amplification for a range of wave and opposing current conditions. These data will be useful for US Coast Guard and Port authorities as they evaluate maritime tsunami evacuation options for the Oregon coast. Finally, we identify three regions of hazard (high, moderate, and low) across the Oregon shelf, which can be used to help guide final designation of tsunami maritime evacuation zones for the coast.

Tsunami mitigation by combination of coastal vegetation and a backward-facing step

ABSTRACTSince the 2011 Great East Japan tsunami, many improvements have been made in both hard and soft solutions for tsunami mitigation. After the 2011 Great East Japan tsunami, a post-tsunami survey was conducted along the coast in Miyagi Prefecture, which was one of the most tsunami-affected sites because rapid acceleration of the tsunami currents broke and washed away the trees, resulting in extensive damage to inland houses. In contrast, some of the houses located inland and away from vegetation with a dropping step survived. This shows a possibility that a step combined with the vegetation offers greater tsunami energy reduction by providing additional resistance. Laboratory experiments were conducted to investigate the energy reduction through a compound defense system (vegetation and a backward-facing step). Vegetation with a step (VS) showed greater energy reduction compared to that of only vegetation without a step (OV) due to additional loss by collision with the bed surface. However, the relative energy reduction in OV remained almost constant with the increase in the initial Froude number (F0, where the Froude number is obtained from a model without vegetation in a flume), whereas the relative energy reduction in VS showed a decreasing trend with increasing F0 because the energy reduction due to collision decreases with increase in water depth or F0.

Tsunami Detection by High Frequency Radar Beyond the Continental Shelf: II. Extension of Time Correlation Algorithm and Validation on Realistic Case Studies

In past work, tsunami detection algorithms (TDAs) have been proposed, and successfully applied to offline tsunami detection, based on analyzing tsunami currents inverted from high-frequency (HF) radar Doppler spectra. With this method, however, the detection of small and short-lived tsunami currents in the most distant radar ranges is challenging due to conflicting requirements on the Doppler spectra integration time and resolution. To circumvent this issue, in Part I of this work, we proposed an alternative TDA, referred to as time correlation (TC) TDA, that does not require inverting currents, but instead detects changes in patterns of correlations of radar signal time series measured in pairs of cells located along the main directions of tsunami propagation (predicted by geometric optics theory); such correlations can be maximized when one signal is time-shifted by the pre-computed long wave propagation time. We initially validated the TC-TDA based on numerical simulations of idealized tsunamis in a simplified geometry. Here, we further develop, extend, and apply the TC algorithm to more realistic tsunami case studies. These are performed in the area West of Vancouver Island, BC, where Ocean Networks Canada recently deployed a HF radar (in Tofino, BC), to detect tsunamis from far- and near-field sources, up to a 110 km range. Two case studies are considered, both simulated using long wave models (1) a far-field seismic, and (2) a near-field landslide, tsunami. Pending the availability of radar data, a radar signal simulator is parameterized for the Tofino HF radar characteristics, in particular its signal-to-noise ratio with range, and combined with the simulated tsunami currents to produce realistic time series of backscattered radar signal from a dense grid of cells. Numerical experiments show that the arrival of a tsunami causes a clear change in radar signal correlation patterns, even at the most distant ranges beyond the continental shelf, thus making an early tsunami detection possible with the TC-TDA. Based on these results, we discuss how the new algorithm could be combined with standard methods proposed earlier, based on a Doppler analysis, to develop a new tsunami detection system based on HF radar data, that could increase warning time. This will be the object of future work, which will be based on actual, rather than simulated, radar data.

EFFECTS OF TIDE AND WAVE DIRECTIONALITY ON LOCALIZED TSUNAMI-INDUCED CURRENTS IN PORT AND HARBORS

Here, we present the results of a numerical modeling study to investigate how the maxima of the tsunami-induced currents vary due to dynamic effects of tides and wave directivity. A sensitivity analyses was conducted in three harbors by coupling the tsunami with the tide signal at twelve different tide levels. We find that tsunami-tide interaction can change the maximum current speed experienced in a harbor by up to 25% for the events and harbors studied, and that this effect is highly site-specific. To evaluate the effect of wave directionality on maximum currents, three earthquakes with different magnitudes were devised along the Pacific, which were also tuned to create the same maximum near-harbor amplitude. Our analysis also shows that, for the harbor and sources examined, the effect of offshore directionality and tsunami frequency content has a very weak effect on the maximum currents experienced in the harbor. The much more important dependency on maximum currents is on the near-harbor amplitude of the wave, indicating that currents in a harbor from a tsunami generated by a large far-field earthquake may be reasonably well predicted with only information about the predicted local tsunami amplitude. This study was motivated by the hope of constructing a basis for understanding the dynamic effects of tides and wave directivity on current-based tsunami hazards in a coastal zone by the application of numerical simulation tools for hazard mapping purposes. The consideration of these aspects is crucial and yet challenging in the modeling of tsunami currents.

Characteristics of wave amplitude and currents in South China Sea induced by a virtual extreme tsunami

This paper investigates the potential extreme tsunami hazards of the worst case scenario of the magnitude Mw = 9.30 in South China Sea (SCS) as the Manila Trench is becoming one of the most hazardous tsunami source regions. Using nonlinear shallow water equations model, the time series of surface elevation, arrival time, spatial distributions of maximum wave amplitude and velocity distribution are presented. The characteristics of wave and currents are analyzed. The numerical results indicate that most of the energy of tsunami wave distributes in central and north part of SCS. The offshore regions around SCS will be influenced significantly by the tsunami currents generated by an earthquake in the Manila subduction zone. The maximum wave amplitude near Guangdong Province, Hainan Island, and Taiwan Island exceeds 4 m and velocities at the majority of measured locations near coast exceeds 2 m/s. Nested grid with high resolution is used to study the impacts of the tsunami on Hainan Island, Taiwan Island, and Lingding Bay. The regions with high hazard risk due to strong currents are identified. Finally, a fast tsunami warning method in SCS is developed and discussed, which can provide tsunami warning information in 5 min.

What's in the water? Remote sensing of currents and “stuff” in the ocean

High frequency acoustic remote sensing of the ocean was still in its infancy in the early 1980s. This paper reviews some early collaborative work with, and subsequent studies informed and inspired by Dr. David Farmer. We summarize early efforts to assess ocean currents, turbulence, and air-sea gas exchange. We will also review a few somewhat serendipitous research studies involving the acoustic assessment of fish wakes and sand dollar populations. More recent results associated with the measurement of tsunami currents will be presented, which provide a gentle reminder to those who would use acoustic velocity estimates to ask: what’s in the water?

Inter-model analysis of tsunami-induced coastal currents

To help produce accurate and consistent maritime hazard products, the National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program organized a benchmarking workshop to evaluate the numerical modeling of tsunami currents. Thirteen teams of international researchers, using a set of tsunami models currently utilized for hazard mitigation studies, presented results for a series of benchmarking problems; these results are summarized in this paper. Comparisons focus on physical situations where the currents are shear and separation driven, and are thus de-coupled from the incident tsunami waveform. In general, we find that models of increasing physical complexity provide better accuracy, and that low-order three-dimensional models are superior to high-order two-dimensional models. Inside separation zones and in areas strongly affected by eddies, the magnitude of both model-data errors and inter-model differences can be the same as the magnitude of the mean flow. Thus, we make arguments for the need of an ensemble modeling approach for areas affected by large-scale turbulent eddies, where deterministic simulation may be misleading. As a result of the analyses presented herein, we expect that tsunami modelers now have a better awareness of their ability to accurately capture the physics of tsunami currents, and therefore a better understanding of how to use these simulation tools for hazard assessment and mitigation efforts.

Effect of tides and source location on nearshore tsunami-induced currents

Here, we present the results of a numerical modeling study that investigates how event-maximum tsunami-induced currents vary due to the dynamic effects of tides and wave directivity. First, analyses of tide-tsunami interaction are presented in three harbors by coupling the tsunami with the tide, and allowing the initial tsunami wave to arrive at various tidal phases. We find that tsunami-tide interaction can change the event-maximum current speed experienced in a harbor by up to 25% for the events and harbors studied, and we note that this effect is highly site-specific. Second, to evaluate the effect of wave directionality on event-maximum currents, earthquakes sources were placed throughout the Pacific, with magnitudes tuned to create the same maximum near-coast amplitude at the harbor of study. Our analysis also shows that, for the harbor and sources examined, the effect of offshore directionality and tsunami frequency content has a weak effect on the event-maximum currents experienced in the harbor. The more important dependency of event-maximum currents is the near-harbor amplitude of the wave, indicating that event-maximum currents in a harbor from a tsunami generated by a large far-field earthquake may be reasonably well predicted with only information about the predicted local maximum tsunami amplitude. This study was motivated by the hope of constructing a basis for understanding the dynamic effects of tides and wave directivity on current-based tsunami hazards in a coastal zone. The consideration of these aspects is crucial and yet challenging in the modeling of tsunami currents. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Performance Assessment of NAMI DANCE in Tsunami Evolution and Currents Using a Benchmark Problem

Numerical modeling of tsunami evolution, propagation, and inundation is complicated due to numerous parameters involved in the phenomenon. It is important to assess the performance of numerical codes that solve tsunami motion, as well as flow and velocity patterns. NAMI DANCE is a computational tool developed for the modeling of long waves. It provides numerical modeling and efficient visualization of tsunami generation, propagation, and inundation mechanisms and computes the tsunami parameters. In the theory of long waves, the vertical motion of water particles has no effect on the pressure distribution. Based upon this approximation and neglecting vertical acceleration, the equations of mass conservation and momentum are reduced to two-dimensional depth-averaged equations. NAMI DANCE uses finite difference computational method to solve linear and nonlinear forms of depth-averaged shallow water equations in long wave problems. In this study, NAMI DANCE is applied to a benchmark problem which was discussed in the 2015 National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program (NTHMP) annual meeting in Portland, USA. The benchmark problem features a series of experiments in which a single solitary wave propagates up a triangular shaped shelf which has an offshore island feature. The problem provides detailed free surface elevation and velocity time series in the vicinity of the island. The comparison of the results showed that NAMI DANCE is able to satisfactorily predict long wave evolution, propagation, amplification, and tsunami currents.

Tsunami hazard assessment in the Hudson River Estuary based on dynamic tsunami–tide simulations

This work is part of a tsunami inundation mapping activity carried out along the US East Coast since 2010, under the auspice of the National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation program (NTHMP). The US East Coast features two main estuaries with significant tidal forcing, which are bordered by numerous critical facilities (power plants, major harbors,...) as well as densely built low-level areas: Chesapeake Bay and the Hudson River Estuary (HRE). HRE is the object of this work, with specific focus on assessing tsunami hazard in Manhattan, the Hudson and East River areas. In the NTHMP work, inundation maps are computed as envelopes of maximum surface elevation along the coast and inland, by simulating the impact of selected probable maximum tsunamis (PMT) in the Atlantic ocean margin and basin. At present, such simulations assume a static reference level near shore equal to the local mean high water (MHW) level. Here, instead we simulate maximum inundation in the HRE resulting from dynamic interactions between the incident PMTs and a tide, which is calibrated to achieve MHW at its maximum level. To identify conditions leading to maximum tsunami inundation, each PMT is simulated for four different phases of the tide and results are compared to those obtained for a static reference level. We first separately simulate the tide and the three PMTs that were found to be most significant for the HRE. These are caused by: (1) a flank collapse of the Cumbre Vieja Volcano (CVV) in the Canary Islands (with a 80 km3 volume representing the most likely extreme scenario); (2) an M9 coseismic source in the Puerto Rico Trench (PRT); and (3) a large submarine mass failure (SMF) in the Hudson River canyon of parameters similar to the 165 km3 historical Currituck slide, which is used as a local proxy for the maximum possible SMF. Simulations are performed with the nonlinear and dispersive long wave model FUNWAVE-TVD, in a series of nested grids of increasing resolution towards the coast, by one-way coupling. Four levels of nested grids are used, from a 1 arc-min spherical coordinate grid in the deep ocean down to a 39-m Cartesian grid in the HRE. Bottom friction coefficients in the finer grids are calibrated for the tide to achieve the local spatially averaged MHW level at high tide in the HRE. Combined tsunami–tide simulations are then performed for four phases of the tide corresponding to each tsunami arriving at Sandy Hook (NJ): 1.5 h ahead, concurrent with, 1.5 h after, and 3 h after the local high tide. These simulations are forced along the offshore boundary of the third-level grid by linearly superposing time series of surface elevation and horizontal currents of the calibrated tide and each tsunami wave train; this is done in deep enough water for a linear superposition to be accurate. Combined tsunami–tide simulations are then performed with FUNWAVE-TVD in this and the finest nested grids. Results show that, for the 3 PMTs, depending on the tide phase, the dynamic simulations lead to no or to a slightly increased inundation in the HRE (by up to 0.15 m depending on location), and to larger currents than for the simulations over a static level; the CRT SMF proxy tsunami is the PMT leading to maximum inundation in the HRE. For all tide phases, nonlinear interactions between tide and tsunami currents modify the elevation, current, and celerity of tsunami wave trains, mostly in the shallower water areas of the HRE where bottom friction dominates, as compared to a linear superposition of wave elevations and currents. We note that, while dynamic simulations predict a slight increase in inundation, this increase may be on the same order as, or even less than sources of uncertainty in the modeling of tsunami sources, such as their initial water elevation, and in bottom friction and bathymetry used in tsunami grids. Nevertheless, results in this paper provide insight into the magnitude and spatial variability of tsunami propagation and impact in the complex inland waterways surrounding New York City, and of their modification by dynamic tidal effects. We conclude that changes in inundation resulting from the inclusion of a dynamic tide in the specific case of the HRE, although of scientific interest, are not significant for tsunami hazard assessment and that the standard approach of specifying a static reference level equal to MHW is conservative. However, in other estuaries with similarly complex bathymetry/topography and stronger tidal currents, a simplified static approach might not be appropriate.

Tsunami Detection by High-Frequency Radar Beyond the Continental Shelf

Where coastal tsunami hazard is governed by near-field sources, such as submarine mass failures or meteo-tsunamis, tsunami propagation times may be too small for a detection based on deep or shallow water buoys. To offer sufficient warning time, it has been proposed to implement early warning systems relying on high-frequency (HF) radar remote sensing, that can provide a dense spatial coverage as far offshore as 200–300 km (e.g., for Diginext Ltd.’s Stradivarius radar). Shore-based HF radars have been used to measure nearshore currents (e.g., CODAR SeaSonde® system; http://www.codar.com/), by inverting the Doppler spectral shifts, these cause on ocean waves at the Bragg frequency. Both modeling work and an analysis of radar data following the Tohoku 2011 tsunami, have shown that, given proper detection algorithms, such radars could be used to detect tsunami-induced currents and issue a warning. However, long wave physics is such that tsunami currents will only rise above noise and background currents (i.e., be at least 10–15 cm/s), and become detectable, in fairly shallow water which would limit the direct detection of tsunami currents by HF radar to nearshore areas, unless there is a very wide shallow shelf. Here, we use numerical simulations of both HF radar remote sensing and tsunami propagation to develop and validate a new type of tsunami detection algorithm that does not have these limitations. To simulate the radar backscattered signal, we develop a numerical model including second-order effects in both wind waves and radar signal, with the wave angular frequency being modulated by a time-varying surface current, combining tsunami and background currents. In each “radar cell”, the model represents wind waves with random phases and amplitudes extracted from a specified (wind speed dependent) energy density frequency spectrum, and includes effects of random environmental noise and background current; phases, noise, and background current are extracted from independent Gaussian distributions. The principle of the new algorithm is to compute correlations of HF radar signals measured/simulated in many pairs of distant “cells” located along the same tsunami wave ray, shifted in time by the tsunami propagation time between these cell locations; both rays and travel time are easily obtained as a function of long wave phase speed and local bathymetry. It is expected that, in the presence of a tsunami current, correlations computed as a function of range and an additional time lag will show a narrow elevated peak near the zero time lag, whereas no pattern in correlation will be observed in the absence of a tsunami current; this is because surface waves and background current are uncorrelated between pair of cells, particularly when time-shifted by the long-wave propagation time. This change in correlation pattern can be used as a threshold for tsunami detection. To validate the algorithm, we first identify key features of tsunami propagation in the Western Mediterranean Basin, where Stradivarius is deployed, by way of direct numerical simulations with a long wave model. Then, for the purpose of validating the algorithm we only model HF radar detection for idealized tsunami wave trains and bathymetry, but verify that such idealized case studies capture well the salient tsunami wave physics. Results show that, in the presence of strong background currents, the proposed method still allows detecting a tsunami with currents as low as 0.05 m/s, whereas a standard direct inversion based on radar signal Doppler spectra fails to reproduce tsunami currents weaker than 0.15–0.2 m/s. Hence, the new algorithm allows detecting tsunami arrival in deeper water, beyond the shelf and further away from the coast, and providing an early warning. Because the standard detection of tsunami currents works well at short range, we envision that, in a field situation, the new algorithm could complement the standard approach of direct near-field detection by providing a warning that a tsunami is approaching, at larger range and in greater depth. This warning would then be confirmed at shorter range by a direct inversion of tsunami currents, from which the magnitude of the tsunami would also estimated. Hence, both algorithms would be complementary. In future work, the algorithm will be applied to actual tsunami case studies performed using a state-of-the-art long wave model, such as briefly presented here in the Mediterranean Basin.

Tsunami currents in ports.

Tsunami-induced currents present an obvious hazard to maritime activities and ports in particular. The historical record is replete with accounts from ship captains and harbour masters describing their fateful encounters with currents and surges caused by these destructive waves. Despite the well-known hazard, only since the trans-oceanic tsunamis of the early twenty-first century (2004, 2010 and 2011) have coastal and port engineering practitioners begun to develop port-specific warning and response products that accurately assess the effects of tsunami-induced currents in addition to overland flooding and inundation. The hazard from strong currents induced by far-field tsunami remains an underappreciated risk in the port and maritime community. In this paper, we will discuss the history of tsunami current observations in ports, look into the current state of the art in port tsunami hazard assessment and discuss future research trends.