Tsunami: the underrated hazard

PART I Tsunami as a known hazard -- Introduction -- Introduction -- Five stories -- An Aboriginal legend -- The Kwenaitchechat Legend, Pacific Northwest -- Krakatau, August 27, 1883 -- Burin Peninsula, Newfoundland, November 18, 1929 -- Papua New Guinea, July 17, 1998 -- Scientific fact or legends? -- Causes of tsunami -- Distribution and fatalities -- M editerranean Sea -- Caribbean Sea -- Pacific Ocean Region (including Indonesia) -- New Zealand and Australia -- Bays, fjords, inland seas, and lakes -- Meteorological phenomena, freak waves, and storm surges -- Tsunami dynamics -- Introduction -- Tsunami characteristics -- Tsunami wave theory -- Resonance -- Shallow-water, long-wave theory -- Run-up and inundation -- Run-up -- Inland penetration -- Depth and velocity at shore -- PART II Tsunami-formed landscapes -- Signatures of tsunami in the coastal landscape -- Introduction -- Depositional signatures of tsunami -- Buried sand or anomalous sediment layers -- Formaminifera and diatoms -- Boulder floaters in sand -- Dump deposits -- Mounds and ridges -- Chevrons and dune bedforms -- Smear deposits -- Large boulders and piles of imbricated boulders -- Turbidites -- Erosional signatures of tsunami -- Small-scale features -- Large-scale features -- Flow dynamics -- Coastal landscape evolution -- Introduction -- Catastrophism vs. uniformitarianism -- Tsunami vs. storms -- The nature of tsunami vs. storm deposits -- Movement of boulders -- Types of coastal landscapes created by tsunami -- Sandy barrier coasts -- Deltas and alluvial plains -- Rocky coasts -- Atolls -- Examples of tsunami-generated landscapes: Australia -- South coast of New South Wales -- Cairns Coast, Northeast Queensland -- Northwest West Australia -- Other examples of tsunami-generated landscapes -- Grand Cayman -- Bahamas -- Chilean coast --

PART III Causes of tsunami -- Earthquake-generated tsunami -- Introduction -- Seismic waves -- Magnitude scales for earthquakes and tsunami -- Earthquake magnitude scales -- Tsunami earthquakes -- Tsunami magnitude scales -- Seismic gaps and tsunami occurrence -- Relationships between earthquakes and tsunami -- How earthquakes generate tsunami -- Linking tsunami run-up to earthquake magnitude .......... 139 Large historical tsunamigenic earthquakes -- Lisbon, November 1, 1755 -- Chile, May 22, 1960 -- Alaska, March 27, 1964 -- Events of the 1990s -- Slow Nicaraguan tsunami earthquake of September 2, 1992 -- Flores, December 12, 1992 -- The Hokkaido Nansei-Oki tsunami of July 12, 1993 -- Papua New Guinea, July 17, 1998 -- The Indian Ocean tsunami, December 26, 2004 -- Great landslides -- Introduction -- Causes of submarine landslides -- How submarine landslides generate tsunami -- Historical tsunami attributable to landslides -- The Lituya Bay landslide of July 9, 1958 -- Grand Banks tsunami, November 18, 1929 -- Geological events -- Hawaiian landslides -- The Canary Islands -- The Storegga slide of 7950 BP -- Bristol Channel, U.K., January 30, 1607 -- The risk in the world's oceans -- Other volcanic islands -- Other topography -- Volcanic eruptions -- Introduction -- Causes of volcano-induced tsunami -- Krakatau, August 26-27, 1883 -- Santorini, around 1470 BC -- Comets and asteroids -- Introduction -- Near Earth objects (NEOs) -- What are they? -- How frequent have comet and asteroid impacts been? -- How do extraterrestrial objects generate tsunami? -- Mechanisms for generating tsunami -- Size of tsunami -- Geological events -- Hypothesized frequency -- Chicxulub, the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K/T) extinction event -- Other events -- Deluge Comet impact event 8,200 ± 200 years ago -- The Mahuika Comet impact event and eastern Australia -- Geological evidence for mega-tsunami -- Maori legends supporting a cosmogenic event -- Aboriginal legends supporting a cosmogenic event -- Timing of Mahuika -- Events in the Kimberley, Western Australia -- Legends supporting cosmogenic tsunami -- Field evidence --

PART IV Modern risk of tsunami

Risk and avoidance

Introduction

What locations along a coast are at risk from tsunami?

Warning systems

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center

Flaws in regional warning systems

Localized tsunami warning systems

How !ong have you got?

Where should you go if there is a tsunami warning'

What if it is an asteroid or comet'?

Is it all that bad? The case of Sydney

Epilogue

Five stories

An unsuspected earthquake

An unassuming earthquake

A submarine landslide

A volcanic eruption

An astroid impact with the ocean

Concluding comments