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On March 11th, 2011, the Pacific coast of Japan was hit by a tsunami generated by the largest earthquake (M9.0) in the history of the country and causing a wide range of devastating damage. Using preliminary reported data from many sources, some topics such as tsunami fatality ratio and tsunami fragility curves for structural damage are discussed and compared with other countries. This paper aims to discuss the damage characteristics of this tsunami as well as its mechanism, as observed through field surveys conducted over the 4 months following the tsunami. The field survey covers 13 areas in the Miyagi prefecture from Kesennuma city in the northernmost region to Yamamoto town in the southernmost region. The arrival time of the first tsunami along the coastal areas in the Miyagi prefecture was confirmed by stopped clocks found during the survey. The damage mechanism of coastal structures such as breakwaters, seawalls, tsunami gates, and evacuation buildings was investigated and discussed. Damage characteristics for each area, i.e., urban areas, port, coastal structures, fisheries, and agricultural areas, were also summarized. The conclusions drawn from the data analysis suggest that experience and education (soft countermeasures) are important to reduce the loss of life, as shown for example in the Sanriku area. The field surveys indicate that wood and reinforced-concrete (RC) structures should be balanced to survive both earthquake and tsunami forces, and the structural design for buildings should be reconsidered after the example in Onagawa town. In addition, coastal structures for tsunami countermeasures (hard countermeasures) should be more properly designed for survival instead of becoming floating debris upon being overturned by a tsunami. The combination of both hard and soft measures is especially necessary for optimizing the outcomes following a great disaster. These recommendations should be taken into consideration in the reconstruction efforts for better tsunami countermeasures in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors visually inspected the building damage caused by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake tsunami, using the pre and post-event aerial photos. First, we prepared the mosaic of post-tsunami aerial photos acquired by Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (GSI), and conducted the visual inspection of buildings damage to classify the damage. The damage classification results are compiled with building shape files on GIS for mapping the structural vulnerability in the tsunami inundation zone. Finally, we discussed the structural vulnerability in the tsunami affected area based on mapping results of building damage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tsunamis are rare events compared with the other natural disasters, but once it happens, it can be extremely devastating to the coastal communities. Extensive inland penetration of tsunamis may cause the difficulties of understanding its impact in the aftermath of its generation. Therefore the social needs to technologies of detecting the wide impact of great tsunamis have been increased. Recent advances of remote sensing and technologies of image analysis meet the above needs and lead to more rapid and efficient understanding of tsunami affected areas. This paper provides a review of how remote sensing methods have developed to contribute to post-tsunami disaster response. The evaluations in the performances of the remote sensing methods are discussed according to the needs of tsunami disaster response with future perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 28 September 2018, a large earthquake of magnitude 7.5 occurred at 72 km away from the city of Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. Following the main shock, a series of tsunami attacked the eastern coasts of central Sulawesi and the severe damages were reported along the coast of Palu Bay.In the aftermath of the event, since the rupture was occurred along Palu-Koro strike-slip fault, the tsunami impact was expected to be relatively low compared with the other past tsunami events caused by the thrust fault rupture. However, the reported damage, more than 70,000 houses were reported to be damaged, was much more severe than expected because of the combination of strong ground motion, landslides, mudflows and tsunamis.After the event occurred, as a part of the Indonesian government's reconnaissance, we conducted a post-tsunami field survey to identify the tsunami impact. The survey was conducted on 21 and 22 October, 2018, and aimed to measure the extent of tsunami inland penetration with RTK-GPS, flow depths and to inspect the structural damage. The survey also aimed to collect the ground truth information for satellite remote sensing and survivor video analysis to understand how the tsunami attacked and devastated the coastal areas of central Palu.From the survey at the central Palu, we found that the major tsunami impact was concentrated within about 200 m inland from the shoreline. The spatial distribution of tsunami flow depths was scattered in the narrow range of tsunami inundation zone of the central Palu coast; 1-3m flow depths in average, 6 m the maximum at the central Palu.Some survivor videos provided important information on tsunami attack, especially on the time series of the first and second tsunami attacks. From the video analysis, we found that the second tsunami hit Palu Grand Mall with the splash height of almost 8 m above the sea level, and the difference of 1st. and 2nd. tsunami attack was likely to be 2 minutes. This implies that these tsunamis were generated by a phenomenon with short time scale or different sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On September 8, 2017 (UTC), a normal-fault earthquake occurred 87 km off the southeast coast of Mexico. This earthquake generated a tsunami that was recorded at coastal tide gauge and offshore buoy stations. First, we conducted a numerical tsunami simulation using a single-fault model to understand the tsunami characteristics near the rupture area, focusing on the nearby tide gauge stations. Second, the tsunami source of this event was estimated from inversion of tsunami waveforms recorded at six coastal stations and three buoys located in the deep ocean. Using the aftershock distribution within 1 day following the main shock, the fault plane orientation had a northeast dip direction (strike $$= 320^{\circ }$$ , dip $$= 77^{\circ }$$ , and rake $$=-92^{\circ }$$ ). The results of the tsunami waveform inversion revealed that the fault area was 240 km × 90 km in size with most of the largest slip occurring on the middle and deepest segments of the fault. The maximum slip was 6.03 m from a 30 × 30 km segment that was 64.82 km deep at the center of the fault area. The estimated slip distribution showed that the main asperity was at the center of the fault area. The second asperity with an average slip of 5.5 m was found on the northwest-most segments. The estimated slip distribution yielded a seismic moment of $$2.9 \times 10^{21}$$ Nm (Mw = 8.24), which was calculated assuming an average rigidity of $$7\times 10^{10}$$ N/m. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A powerful tsunami triggered by the Mw 9.0 Tohoku earthquake struck the northern Pacific coast of Japan in 2011, destroying several coastal communities in Iwate Prefecture, Miyagi Prefecture, and Fukushima Prefecture. Here, we investigate a new spatio-temporal slip model (model B) developed by the Cabinet Office of the Government of Japan. This slip model was compared against the non-uniform slip model estimated using tsunami waveform data (model A). We focused our analysis on two areas that were destroyed by the tsunami. The town of Onagawa and the coastal Sendai Plain area were selected because they were located in front of the epicentre, where the most significant slips were registered. Our simulation results revealed that the spatio-temporal slip distribution better replicated the observed data. Regarding the tsunami waveforms from the coastal tide gauge station and offshore stations, the Cabinet Office's slip model showed an approximately 30% better accuracy relative to the non-uniform slip model. Furthermore, by comparing the local inundation features at two locations with unique topographic and coastal morphological characteristics, we also found that model B better replicated the measured inundation depths. Finally, considering that tsunami-induced damage is a direct function of various inundation features such as the flow depth and flow velocity, this new slip model can generate more realistic damage scenarios for future tsunami assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japan was hit by the tsunami generated by the greatest earthquake in the history of Japan. The authors conducted the post-tsunami field survey in Miyagi prefecture immediately after the event to measure the inundation depth and investigate damaged buildings. Most of the buildings surveyed were wooden houses and could be classified into 4 damage levels. The primary data of inundation depth and damage levels obtained from the field survey were used to create the tsunami fragility curves, which described the degree of structural damage as a function of the hydrodynamic characteristics of tsunami inundation. The developed fragility curves show that damage with more than a 50% chance of occurring is classified as minor damage, moderate damage, major damage and complete damage when the tsunami inundation depth is between 2.5-3.0 m, 3.0-4.0 m and 4.0-4.5 m and greater than 4.5 m, respectively. By comparing the developed tsunami fragility curves, wooden houses in the studied area have higher structural performance than those obtained from historical events in other areas. The new curves suggest that wooden houses will be severely damaged if the inundation depth is greater than 3 m and collapse if the depth is greater than 4 m while wooden houses from historical data can resist only 1-2 m. Moreover, wooden walls in Japan reduce the overall failure of a structural member because a wooden wall is easier to destroy (compared to brick walls in Thailand and Indonesia) and allows the tsunami to pass through, which reduces the pressure at the attacking front of the tsunami. The fragility curves are very important for the loss estimation and reconstruction plans of the city; they are also crucial for reducing the disaster damage from a future tsunami. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highly destructive tsunamis occurred near the Pacific coast of Colombia in 1906 and 1979. Recent studies have established asperities within the subduction zone in this area, which can cause megathrust earthquakes triggering highly destructive tsunamis. In this study we assess the tsunami hazard in the main populated areas of Colombia Pacific coast by calculating the inundation depth and the maximum tsunami height from major scenario. A deterministic method is applied using slip deficit models and broadband slip models as tsunami sources. Result suggest that, for the worse-case scenario, the maximum deformation of the seafloor is 6.0 m within the Esmaraldas segment ; the maximum height of the tsunami is 4.66 m, 4.34 m and 0.53 m around. Tumaco Island, Morro Island, and Cascajal Island (Buenaventura Bay), respectively. Two to five meters inundation depth were calculated in over 11% and 10% of the total areas of the islands of Tumaco and Morro, respectively. Based on these result, tsunami hazard maps were alaborated and will serve to create tsunami mitigation plans in these areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tsunami disasters that occurred in Indonesia, Chile, and Japan have inflicted serious casualties and damaged social infrastructures. Tsunami forecasting systems are thus urgently required worldwide. We have developed a real-time tsunami inundation forecast system that can complete a tsunami inundation and damage forecast for coastal cities at the level of 10-m grid size in less than 20 min. As the tsunami inundation and damage simulation is a vectorizable memory-intensive program, we incorporate NEC’s vector supercomputer SX-ACE. In this paper, we present an overview of our system. In addition, we describe an implementation of the program on SX-ACE and evaluate its performance of SX-ACE in comparison with the cases using an Intel Xeon-based system and the K computer. Then, we clarify that the fulfillment of a real-time tsunami inundation forecast system requires a system with high-performance cores connected to the memory subsystem at a high memory bandwidth such as SX-ACE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A framework for time-variant tsunami hazard assessment considering nonstationary sea-level rise effects is established. • Non-Poisson renewal process models are developed to combine randomly recurring tsunamis with nonstationary sea-level rise. • The sea-level rise uncertainty is integrated during the tsunami hazard assessment according to total probability theorem. • Tsunami hazard increases considerably when considering nonstationary sea-level rise under non-Poisson earthquake events. Tsunami-induced disasters present a significant threat to coastal communities. Under the effects of sea-level rise due to climate change, tsunami occurrence frequency and intensities would increase in a nonstationary manner due to the long-term progressive trend in the variability in sea level. Therefore, the reliability of coastal infrastructure systems affected by tsunami hazard will diminish over time. A procedure for hazard assessment that integrates tsunamis occurring at random times with evolving sea-level rise should be established. This paper presents a novel framework for the time-variant assessment of tsunami hazard considering the effects of nonstationary sea-level rise due to climate change based on a non-Poisson stochastic renewal process. A time-variant probabilistic sea-level rise is modeled by utilizing various climate models and existing data reported in several studies. The conditional tsunami hazard curves considering sea-level rise are estimated by performing tsunami propagation analyses under different sea-level rise cases and by Monte Carlo simulation, considering the uncertainties associated with earthquake fault movements. Finally, the new concept of time-variant tsunami hazard assessment considering the nonstationary effects of sea-level rise is developed according to a non-Poisson stochastic renewal process. An illustrative example is provided by applying the proposed framework to several municipalities in the Kochi Prefecture of Japan that are subjected to the anticipated Nankai-Tonankai earthquake. The effects of sea-level rise on time-variant tsunami hazard under Poisson and non-Poisson processes of earthquake occurrence are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A framework for incorporating uncertainties associated with sea-level rise in probabilistic tsunami hazard assessments (PTHAs) is established. • A practical approach for probabilistic sea-level rise hazard assessment is provided by utilizing the available climate models and data. • Tsunami hazard curves considering the effects of sea-level rise are estimated based on the total probability theorem. • Neglecting the effects of sea-level rise in a low-lying coastal plain can significantly underestimate tsunami hazards. Sea-level rise due to climate change could significantly exacerbate tsunami disasters since the sea level is a critical parameter affecting the intensity of tsunamis. Considering the impacts of future climate change on the ocean, a method to consider the effects of sea-level rise on the tsunami hazard intensity is needed to precisely predict future tsunami disasters. This paper presents a novel framework for probabilistic tsunami hazard assessment, considering the sea-level rise and associated uncertainties. A probabilistic assessment of the sea-level rise hazard is performed using the available data and climate models considering several climate change emission scenarios. Conditional tsunami hazard curves are estimated by conducting tsunami propagation simulations given a sea-level rise while considering the uncertainties associated with fault movement (i.e., rake angles and average stress drops). Radial-basis-function-based surrogate models and quasi-Monte-Carlo simulations are employed to obtain tsunami hazard curves. Finally, the tsunami hazard curves considering the effects of sea-level rise are estimated by convolving the corresponding regional sea-level rise hazard with the conditional tsunami hazard curves based on the total probability theorem. An illustrative example is provided, in which the proposed framework is applied to several municipalities in the Mie Prefecture of Japan that would be affected by tsunamis during the anticipated Nankai-Tonankai earthquake. The effects of sea-level rise on the tsunami hazard intensities associated with the municipalities are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]