The Historical Tsunami Database for the Pacific
(HTDB/PAC) was established and is being maintained by the Novosibirsk
Tsunami Laboratory (NTL) of the Institute of Computational Mathematics
and Mathematical Geophysics ICM&MG, Siberian Division of Russian
Academy of Sciences since 1991. The initial data collection from the
existing tsunami catalogs and primary publications was made under the
ETDB (Expert Tsunami Database) Project supported by the Russian
Foundation of Basic Research (grants 93-05-14499 and 95-07-19335)
and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO
(contracts SC/RP 207.518.4 and SC/RP 207.566.6). At that stage, the
dBASEIV was used as the database management system. Additionally, a
special DOS-based graphic shell for easy data manipulation has been
developed (
Gusiakov et al., 1997). This shell acts as
geographic mapping subsystem and provides fast and convenient
options for search, retrieval, display and processing of tsunami
data.
The database consists of the two main sets of
observational data – parametric source data (
event data
) and observed or measured run-up heights (
run-up data
). The first set contains the source and some integrated
tsunami parameters for almost 1490 historical tsunamigenic events
occurred in the Pacific (within the area between 65S to 65N and 80E to
50W) from 47 B.C up to the present time. A set of parameters includes
the full date (Year, Mo, Da) and time (
Hr, Mn, Sec) of an event, position of its source (
Lat, Long), the source depth Dep
, the basic set of source magnitudes (mb, Ms, Mw, Mt
), tsunami intensity I (on the
Soloviev-Imamura scale), tsunami magnitude m
(on the Imamira-Iida scale), the maximum observed run-up value
Hmax, the total number of available run-up and
tide-gauge measurements N, damage code
D, the number of reported fatalities due to an
event F, a cause of the tsunami C
, validity of an event V,
warning status WS (where available),
tsunamigenic region code TR, the basic
reference BR and a brief description of
the source region. A more detailed explanation of the data format
can be obtained upon clicking the “Legend” button on the “Event data”
screen form.
The second set contains nearly 8000 coastal run-up
observations and tide-gauge measurements of wave heights. This part of
the database was initially imported from the NGDC Worldwide Tsunami
Database (
Lockridge, Dunbar, 1996) and in its considerable
part it is still fully identical to the NGDC run-up data file. Major
improvements and corrections were made for the Kuril-Kamchatka region
(within the ETDB/PAC Project) and for the US Pacific coast including
Alaska and Hawaii (within the HTDB/US Project). Also, we have added
all the accessible for us measurements of wave heights for the recent
Pacific tsunamis of 1992-1998 obtained in the post-event field surveys.
For each wave height record, a set of displayed parameters includes
the 3-level name of the site (Region name,
Area name and Site name),
its geographical coordinates (Lat,
Long), the type of measurement T (
R - run-up, T -
tide-gauge) and the observed run-up height or the double amplitude
H (in meters). A more detailed explanation of
the data format can be obtained upon clicking the “Legend” button on
the “Run-up data” screen form. Each wave height data set for a
particular event is preceded by the line containing the basic source
parameters of the event in the format accepted for the event data.
For the Web version of the database, historical datasets
were converted from the dBASEIV format to the MS SQL Server format.
Special screen forms were developed to provide you with the possibility
for data search by complex criteria, for data listing, sorting and
for several types of data processing (the latter is currently
available for the event data only). By default, the data search by
each parameter is made for the maximum range of its possible values,
including (THIS IS IMPORTANT!) the records with the “NULL” (not defined)
value of this parameter. So, for instance, if in the event data
screen form you make the data search for the whole Pacific and for
the full time range (from 47 B.C. to 1998) you will get a list of 1493
historical events. However, if you click before the “Area” button and
then click “OK” to confirm the default coordinates for the Pacific
region (65S–65N, 80E-50W), you will get a list of 1276 events, because
in this case 217 events without source coordinates will be ignored.