Local Warning

International Workshop ON “Local Tsunami Warning and Mitigation”, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, Russia, September 10 - 15, 2002


In response to the recommendations of the XVIII Session of UNESCO/IOC/ICG/ITSU, the International Workshop “Local Tsunami Warning and Mitigation” was jointly organized by the IUGG Tsunami Commission and the International Co-ordination Group for the Tsunami Warning System in the Pacific of the UNESCO in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, Russia, on September 10 - 15, 2002. P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) and the Kamchatka Seismological Department of Geophysical Service of the RAS led the Workshop as local organizers.

Destructive effects of many tsunamis are confined to the areas within one hour of the propagation time (that is, within several hundred km of their source location). These tsunamis are classified as local, as opposed to the regional and the Pacific-wide tsunamis whose destructive effects can be exposed well outside (up to 10 thousand km) their area of origin. In all the main Pacific tsunamigenic regions, the majority of tsunami-related casualties and property damage come from local tsunamis. A very short travel time increases a local tsunami hazard. It is therefore an important challenge for the research community and decision-makers to identify the ways for reducing losses of lives and property damage from the local tsunamis. The main purpose of the Workshop was to consider the state-of-the-art of the local tsunami problem and to discuss fundamental and applied studies directed at the reduction of a local tsunami hazard.

As one of the most active seismic- and tsunami-prone areas in the Pacific, having a long history of historical and paleo-tsunamis and complemented by interesting environmental features, Kamchatka was an appropriate place for the international tsunami community members to discuss the local tsunami problem. Additionally, the workshop was held in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the 1952 Great Kamchatka Earthquake and Tsunami. The magnitude 8.3 Kamchatka earthquake of November 4, 1952 generated a catastrophic tsunami that killed more than two thousand people in the Northern Kuriles. The town of Severo-Kurilsk (Paramushir Island) was completely destroyed. This catastrophic event initiated the scientific study of the tsunami problem in Russia and resulted in the creation of the Soviet Far East Tsunami Warning System at the end of the 50s.

Over 100 scientists (42 registered participants) from 12 countries (Bulgaria, Canada, France, French Polynesia, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Russia, Turkey, the USA) attended the Workshop. The Workshop programme and the submitted abstracts can be found at http://oceanc47.phys.msu.su/.

The oral presentations made at the Workshop were grouped in the following topics:

  • 1952 Kamchatka Earthquake and Tsunami,
  • Historical Catalogues and Databases,
  • Seismo-tectonics of Tsunami,
  • Numerical and Analytical Models of Local Tsunami Behavior,
  • Mitigation and Risk Assessment,
  • Tsunami Geology and Paleotsunamis,
  • Tsunami Measurement and Data Analysis,
  • Hydroacoustic Methods in Tsunami Research.

A special student session, that was unanimously recognized as of a high scientific quality by all the workshop participants, was included in the Workshop programme to facilitate the participation of young scientists.

 The Workshop was followed by a one-day geological field excursion led by Dr.J.Bourgeois and Dr.T.Pinegina. Participants were familiarized with paleotsunami methodology and field practice. At several coastal locations on the Khalatyrskiy Beach, 30 km north-east of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, the geological traces of the 1737 and 1952 Kamchatka tsunamis were demonstrated.

Analysis of the state-of-the-art of the local tsunami problem made by the Workshop participants testifies to the potential of a significant improvement for the forecast methodology and hazard reduction. Based on the presented papers and follow-up discussions, the Workshop has made the following recommendations as an approach to realizing this potential.

Databases
Comprehensive historical databases are one of the key elements of the local tsunami risk assessment methodology. The existing tsunami databases supported by the Novosibirsk Tsunami Laboratory (NTL) and the NGDC/NOAA can serve as a good basis for this work. Study of paleotsunami deposits can provide a significant addition for historical database that can considerably extend its time coverage. While nearly all historical events included in the published national, regional and Pacific-wide catalogs have already been included in the databases, a wealth of less-known data still exists locally. A lot of work is still needed for their search, parameterization and including in the databases.

People Education
Local tsunami has a very short travel time, therefore conventional tsunami warning procedures might be ineffective. People living in vulnerable coastal areas should be well-informed about a potential tsunamis hazard. Everybody should know how to act in the case of a strong earthquake or tsunami warning. The Workshop strongly recommends to conduct public educational programs (involving mass media), to publish informational booklets, etc.

Paleotsunami research
A destructive tsunami is rather a rare event at a given coastal location. To estimate the existing tsunami hazard properly, a long-term observations are required. Geologic records of pre-historical tsunamis can extend the historical and instrumental records to the recent past. They are also necessary in filling historic records gaps, or in filling geographic gaps for known tsunamis. Paleotsunami data in conjunction with numerical modeling can be useful for the tsunami sources identification.

Hydroacoustic methods in the local tsunami warning problem
Monitoring of the hydroacoustic signals emitted by the source area of impending underwater earthquake allows localization of this area for some time (from several to tens of minutes) prior to the main shock. This result testifies to the potential perspectives of hydroacoustic methods for the short-time prediction of local tsunamis.

Tsunami generation mechanism
Several papers presented at the Workshop have clearly demonstrated that the submarine slumping can play an important role in tsunami generation; nonlinear phenomena in a tsunami source can increase the tsunami amplitude. The Workshop recommends further investigation of the tsunami generation mechanism. The investigation should be directed at the development of the software tools for the calculation of the initial conditions in the generation area allowing the submarine slumping and non-linear phenomena for their further use in the tsunami propagation models.

High resolution bathymetry and topographic data
Quite often numerical modeling is the only way to determine the potential run-ups and to delineate the inundation area from local tsunamis. For accurate modeling, detailed bathymetric and topographic data are required. The Workshop recommends to continue efforts for collecting high-resolution bathymetric and topographic data for the tsunami-prone areas available in different centers and institutions in a single web-assessed database.

Preparation of collected volume “The 1952 Great Kamchatka Tsunami"
The 1952 Great Kamchatka Tsunami was one of the most destructive tsunamis in the last century. It had a destructive effect in the South Kamchatka and North Kuriles and was widely observed all over the Pacific. The publication of a special volume of papers containing all the earlier known and new materials related to this event is of great importance for understanding of local tsunami behavior, generation and propagation mechanism of trans-Pacific tsunamis and for improvement of their warning and hazard mitigation.

Kamchatka Tsunami (Warning) Center
The Workshop recommends setting up in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatky the “Kamchatka Tsunami (Warning) Center” (KTC). Being one of the most active seismic- and tsunami-prone areas in the Pacific, Kamchatka is an appropriate place for a scientific center to coordinate the tsunami research, to carry out educational activity, etc. Using the scientific potential of the research centers and institutions located in the Far-East region, the TCW could serve as Center of Excellence for the development of new methods of tsunami prediction and mitigation and their implementation in the existing Tsunami Warning System.

Acknowledgement
The participants wish to thank members of the Local Organizing Committee for the excellent organization of the Workshop. Special thanks go to Mrs.Olga Yakovenko, whose tremendous efforts made at every stage of the Workshop arrangement are highly appreciated. The Organizing Committee is also grateful to Physics Faculty of M.V.Lomonosov Moscow State University for supporting the Workshop web-site.

The financial support for the Workshop obtained from the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO, the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, the Russian Academy of Sciences, and International Ocean Institute is greatly appreciated.

Participants

Dr. Alberto Armigliato
University of Bologna, Dept. of Physics, Sector of Geophysics
Italy
armigliato@ibogfs.df.unibo.it

Prof. Joanne Bourgeois
Dept. Geol. Sci., Univ. of Washington, Seattle
USA
jbourgeo@u.washington.edu

Dr. Josef Cherniawsky
Institute of Ocean Sciences, Sidney, B.C. Canada
Canada
cherniawskyj@pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca

Prof. Jong Yul Chung
Research Institute Oceanography, Seoul National University
Republic of Korea
chung@eddies.snu.ac.kr

Ms. Ursula Cochran
Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences
New Zealand
u.cochran@gns.cri.nz

Dr. Igor Didenkulov
Institute of Applied Physics, RAS, Nizgny Novgorod, Russia
Russia

Ms. Irina Didenkulova
Nizhny Novgorod State University
Russia
dii@appl.sci-nnov.ru

Dr. Gerard Fryer
University of Hawaii at Manoa
USA
gerard@hawaii.edu

Dr. Evgenii Gordeev
Kamchatkan Seismological Department, Geophysical Service, RAS
Russia
gord@emsd.iks.ru

Dr. Viacheslav Gusiakov
Institute of Computational Mathematics and Mathematical Geophysics SD
Russia
gvk@omzg.sscc.ru

Ms. Irina Hvatova
P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, RAS
Russia

Mr. Shusaku Inoue
Tokyo Institute of Technology
Japan
shusaku@enveng.titech.ac.jp

Dr. Vladimir Ivanov
Institute of Marine Geology & Geophysics, Far Eastern Division of Academy
Russia
VL_Ivanov@mail.ru

Dr. Victor Kaistrenko
Institute of Marine Geology & Geophysics, Russian Academy of Sciences
Russia
tsunami@sakhmail.ru

Prof. Yakov Karlik
Central Research Institute "MORPHYSPRIBOR", Sankt Peterbourg, Russia
Russia
karlik@mail.cl.spb.ru

Mr. Sergey Kolesov
Physics Faculty of M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University
Russia
kolesov@phys.msu.su

Dr. Evgeny Kulikov
P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, RAS
Russia

Prof. Boris Levin
P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, RAS
Russia
levin@rfbr.ru

Dr. Alexandr Lutikov
Institute of the Physics of the Earth, Russian Academy of Sciences
Russia
ail@uipe-ras.scgis.ru

Prof. Andrei Marchuk
Institute of Computational Mathematics and Mathematical Geophysics,
Russia
mag@omzg.sscc.ru

Dr. Hiroyuki Matsumoto
Japan Marine Science and Technology Center
Japan
hmatsumoto@jamstec.go.jp

Dr. Charles McCreery
Richard H. Hagemeyer Pacific Tsunami Warning Center
USA
charles.mccreery@noaa.gov

Mr. Victor Morozov
P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, RAS
Russia
rdfrmoroz@mail.ru

Dr. Futoshi Nanayama
Active Fault Research Center, National Institute for Advanced Industrial
Japan
nanayama-f@aist.go.jp

Dr. Mikhail Nosov
Physics Faculty of M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University
Russia
nosov@phys.msu.su

Mr. Yury Permikin
Institute of Marine Geology and Geophysics Far East branch of Russian
Russia
popl@imgg.ptcom.ru

Dr. Tatiana Pinegina
IVGG FED RAS
Russia
pinegtk@rambler.ru

Dr. Alexander Poplavsky
Institute of Marine Gelogy and Geophysics Far East Branch of Russian
Russia
popl@imgg.ptcom.ru, popl@bgtelecom.ru

Dr. Nanang Puspito
Dept. Geophysics and Meteorology, Institute of Technology Bandung (ITB)
Indonesia
puspito@geoph.itb.ac.id

Ms. Papa Ramino
Accompanying person
Italy

Dr. Boyko Ranguelov
Geophysical Institute - Bulg. Academy of Sciences
Bulgaria
bkr@geophys.bas.bg

Mr. Dominique Reymond
CEA/DASE/LDG
French Polynesia
reymond.d@labogeo.pf

Dr. Vadim Saltykov
Kamchatkan Seismological Department, Geophysical Service, RAS
Russia
salt@emsd.iks.ru

Dr. Elena Sassorova
P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, RAS
Russia
sasor@orc.ru

Dr. Francois Schindele
Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique, Departement Analyse Surveillance
France
schindel@dase.bruyeres.cea.fr

Mr. Sergey Skachko
Physics Faculty of M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University
Russia
skachko@stk.mmtel.ru

Dr. Vasily Titov
NOAA/PMEL
USA
vasily.titov@noaa.gov

Prof. Yoshinobu Tsuji
Earthquake Research Institute, University Tokyo
Japan
tsuji@eri.u-tokyo.ac.jp

Dr. Alexander Vikulin
Kamchatkan Seismological Department, Geophysical Service, RAS
Russia
avik@emsd.iks.ru

Dr. Philip Watts
Applied Fluids Engineering, Inc.
USA
phil.watts@appliedfluids.com

Prof. Ahmet Cevdet Yalciner
Middle East Technical University, Civil Engineering Department, Ocean
Turkey
yalciner@metu.edu.tr

Mr. Igor Zyskin
Central desing office of hydrometeorological instrument production
Russia
ckb@meteo.ru

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