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PROJECTS
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Integrated Tsunami Research and Information System.
ITRIS Pilot (Integrated Tsunami Research and Information System, Pilot version)
is an interactive software package developed by the Novosibirsk Tsunami Laboratory
under the joint project with WAPMERR (Geneva, Switzerland) for maintaining and
display of tsunami-related data, carrying out numerical modeling of tsunami
generation, propagation and run-up and for development of tsunami hazard and
inundation maps particular parts of the World Ocean coast. Windows-based
database management system intended for visualization and handling of
historical data for tsunamis affecting the Pacific coast.
All these components are embedded into a specially developed graphic shell,
built as a GIS-type mapping system that provides the enhanced environment for
easy and efficient manipulation with maps, models and data. The graphic shell
is written on C# and runs under Windows 2000, XP, Vista on IBM PCs and compatibles.
- International Tsunami Expedition in Southern Madagascar, August 29-September 13, 2006.
The International Tsunami Expedition has finished a two week survey of the
southern coast of Madagascar. The research team, consisted of Dr. D.Abbott,
Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, USA, Dr. E.Bryant,
University of Wollongong, Australia, Dr. V.Gusiakov, Novosibirsk Tsunami
Laboratory, Russia, Dr. W.Masse, Los Alamos National Lab, USA. The team was
accompanied by two representatives of the University of Antananarivo,
Andriamiranta Raveloson and Hoby Raza. The team obtained field data from large
chevrons detected earlier this year using Google Earth imagery. The main
purpose of this field trip was to measure the vertical and horizontal extension
of the chevrons, to study their genesis and morphological features, and to
obtain marine shell in order to determine their age. Another important goal
of the expedition was to verify whether or not the chevrons discovered on
satellite images represent mega-tsunami deposits and if so, to confirm the
inferred run-ups derived from the imagery.
The expedition, using two rented 4-weel drive vehicles, studied over 150 km
of the southernmost Madagascar coast. Participants made several traverses of
the four largest chevron formations in this area - near Faux Cape, Cape Saint
Marie and along the coast of Fenambosy and Ampalaza Bays. All the chevrons
consist of marine sand transported by water, in some cases over the edge of
a coastal escarpment over 150 m high. In contrast to wind-blown dunes, which
consist of a well sorted, unimodal size distribution, the chevrons are unsorted
with a broad range of particle sizes, from small boulders down to clay particles.
They also include marine shells. Dump deposits, consisting of a mixture of rock
fragments and marine shell, that are typical of mega-tsunami processes were
found eastward from Lavanono to Cape Saint Marie. Many of the rock fragments
were not locally derived. The team documented maximum runups of 86 m above
present day sea level at Ampalaza, 186 m at Fenambosy, 205 m at Faux Cap and
192 m at Cape St Marie. Each of the chevrons represents lateral transport of
sediment onto the coast over many kilometers: 20 km at Faux Cap, 30 km at
Fenambosy, and 45 km at Ampalaza.
The measured run-up heights and in land penetration over this extended part
of the coast are far beyond the range produced by the largest historically known
tectonic tsunamis (seismic and volcanic). Such a great run-up can be produced
only by a large-volume submarine landslide somewhere along the nearby continental
slope or by an oceanic impact within the Indian Ocean. In the later case, the 29
km Burckle crater found by D.Abbott in 2005 (Abbott et al,2005) at 30S, 61E on
a fracture zone of the Southwest Indian Ridge is a good candidate for the source
of the mega-tsunami responsible for formation of these chevrons. The Burckle
crater is geologically very young, most probably about 4500 to 5000 years old.
If C-14 dating of shell collected from the chevrons matches the probable age of
the Burckle crater, this will be an important result to prove the reality of
the threat of cosmogenic tsunamis in the recent past in the world's oceans.
The expedition was sponsored by the WAPMERR (World Agency for Planetary Monitoring
and Earthquake Risk Reduction), Geneva, Switzerland
as a part of their cooperative project with the Novosibirsk Tsunami Laboratory
for the development of the World-Wide Tsunami Database and methods for
long-term tsunami risk estimation.
- Analysis of the Tsunami Travel Time maps for damaging tsunamis in the World Ocean
The report prepared by the WAPMERR Tsunami Research Group for the IOC/UNESCO
describes the results of analysis of the Tsunami Travel Time (TTT) maps for
regional and trans-oceanic damageable tsunamigenic events occurred in the main
tsunamigenic regions of the World Ocean. It is based on the latest version of
the Global Historical Tsunami DataBase (GTDB) that covers the period from 1628
B.C. till present and contains nearly 2250 historical events with 1206 of them occurred in the Pacific, 263 in the Atlantic, 125 in the Indian ocean and 545 in the Mediterranean region. Out these 2250 historical events, only 223 (10%) tsunamis resulted in any fatalities, all others were weak local events observable only in some particular areas of the nearest coast. In total, they are responsible for 694,000 lives lost in tsunami waves during all the historical period of available observations. From these 223 deadly tsunamis, 212 (95%) fall into the category of local and regional events with most of damage and all fatalities limited to one-hour propagation time. These regional events are responsible for 322,000 (47% of the total ) fatalities. The 11 trans-oceanic tsunamis that occurred in the World Ocean during the last 250 years resulted in 372,000 (53% of the total) fatalities. The detailed analysis of spatial distribution of fatalities for these most destructive tsunamis shows that although their damaging impact can last up to 23-24 hours, over 84% of all their fatalities occur within the first hour of propagation time. Another 12% of fatalities happen within the second hour, and the rest of 4% occur during the remaining time (greater than two hours). The overwhelming majority of other tsunamis (that is 99.5% of all historical cases and 95% of all damaging events) are the local and regional events whose major damage and all fatalities are limited to a near-source area within one-hour of propagation time. Among them, more than a half (60%) had their sources within 30-min travel time limit. The above conclusions, obtained by the analysis of the most complete historical dataset, currently available in digital domain, are important and should be taken into account in design and implementation of any regional or basin-wide tsunami warning system.
- Integrated Tsunami Database for the World Ocean (WinITDB Project)
A comprehensive Integrated Tsunami DataBase (ITDB) for the World Ocean has
been compiled as part of the joint IUGG/TC and ICG/ITSU Project "Basic Pacific
Tsunami Catalog and Database". The project, launched in 1997, is directed to
improve the situation with catalogization of historical tsunamis in the Pacific
by means of organizing them in the form of the parametric tsunami catalog and
the database. Its final goal is the development of the comprehensive historical
tsunami catalog covering the whole historical period and containing all the
meaningful tsunami data along with additional reference information related
to the tsunami problem in the Pacific. The database consists of three main
parts: the catalog of tsunamigenic events with their basic source parameters,
the catalog of the observed run-up heights and a Pacific-wide catalog of
historical earthquakes from pre-historic times till present.
- Parametric Data Manager
The PDM (Parametric Data Manager) is a DBMS-type software written on Visual C ++ and run under Windows 98, 2000, NT 4.0 and XP. The PDM is the supplementary part of the
WinITDB (Windows-based Integrated Tsunami DataBase) package developed at the Novosibirsk Tsunami Laboratory for storage, visulalization and processing of tsunami-related data. The PDM was specially designed for database regional coordinators and data compilers to assist them in the initial data compilation, storage, editing and updating and their further converting into the WinITDB format. The PDM can handle all the basic types of tsunami data and information as parametric (source data, run-up observations, tide measurements) as descriptive (structured text, bibliographical references, digitized images). The PDM consists of the Quick Look Table (QLT) that displays the list of tsunamigenic events with the condensed set of their source parameters and the Tsunami Event Card (TEC) that presents the full set of parametric and reference data related to a particular event. In the QLT, every event is shown as a single line of parameters representing the basic set of data on a particular tsunamigenic event. Except the listing and sorting of tsunamigenic events, the QLT allows to make any event retrieval by multiple criteria, sorting and report printing. The TEC provides an access to the full set of data related to a particular event. It consists of several tags containing a particular type of information (source event data, data on damage, run-up heights, textual description of an event, photos, sketches and other graphical images, bibliographical references). The important feature of the TEC is the ability to manipulate with the adequately referenced multi-string data related to a single event (source coordinates, magnitudes, estimates of damage) as provided by different agencies.
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