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Are inundation limit and maximum extent of sand useful for differentiating tsunamis and storms? An example from sediment transport simulations on the Sendai Plain, Japan

Are inundation limit and maximum extent of sand useful for differentiating tsunamis and storms? An example from sediment transport simulations on the Sendai Plain, Japan
Are inundation limit and maximum extent of sand useful for differentiating tsunamis and storms? An example from sediment transport simulations on the Sendai Plain, Japan
We examined the quantitative difference in the distribution of tsunami and storm deposits based on numerical simulations of inundation and sediment transport due to tsunami and storm events on the Sendai Plain, Japan. The calculated distance from the shoreline inundated by the 2011 Tohoku-oki tsunami was smaller than that inundated by storm surges from hypothetical typhoon events. Previous studies have assumed that deposits observed farther inland than the possible inundation limit of storm waves and storm surge were tsunami deposits. However, confirming only the extent of inundation is insufficient to distinguish tsunami and storm deposits, because the inundation limit of storm surges may be farther inland than that of tsunamis in the case of gently sloping coastal topography such as on the Sendai Plain. In other locations, where coastal topography is steep, the maximum inland inundation extent of storm surges may be only several hundred meters, so marine-sourced deposits that are distributed several km inland can be identified as tsunami deposits by default. Over both gentle and steep slopes, another difference between tsunami and storm deposits is the total volume deposited, as flow speed over land during a tsunami is faster than during a storm surge. Therefore, the total deposit volume could also be a useful proxy to differentiate tsunami and storm deposits.
Delft-3D, Numerical simulation, Storm deposit, SWAN, Tsunami deposit
0037-0738
204-216
Watanabe, Masashi
880b3e5b-42a4-49a2-b196-0d06e54e45db
Goto, Kazuhisa
83ebddaf-a094-4138-b5d0-47d561e975e3
Bricker, Jeremy D.
484c9410-7d81-43de-8b29-50233fac1c49
Imamura, Fumihiko
13656bc7-ebb6-42c7-a49e-689e2a837a8f
Watanabe, Masashi
880b3e5b-42a4-49a2-b196-0d06e54e45db
Goto, Kazuhisa
83ebddaf-a094-4138-b5d0-47d561e975e3
Bricker, Jeremy D.
484c9410-7d81-43de-8b29-50233fac1c49
Imamura, Fumihiko
13656bc7-ebb6-42c7-a49e-689e2a837a8f

Watanabe, Masashi, Goto, Kazuhisa, Bricker, Jeremy D. and Imamura, Fumihiko (2018) Are inundation limit and maximum extent of sand useful for differentiating tsunamis and storms? An example from sediment transport simulations on the Sendai Plain, Japan. Sedimentary Geology, 364, 204-216. (doi:10.1016/j.sedgeo.2017.12.026).

Record type: Article

Abstract

We examined the quantitative difference in the distribution of tsunami and storm deposits based on numerical simulations of inundation and sediment transport due to tsunami and storm events on the Sendai Plain, Japan. The calculated distance from the shoreline inundated by the 2011 Tohoku-oki tsunami was smaller than that inundated by storm surges from hypothetical typhoon events. Previous studies have assumed that deposits observed farther inland than the possible inundation limit of storm waves and storm surge were tsunami deposits. However, confirming only the extent of inundation is insufficient to distinguish tsunami and storm deposits, because the inundation limit of storm surges may be farther inland than that of tsunamis in the case of gently sloping coastal topography such as on the Sendai Plain. In other locations, where coastal topography is steep, the maximum inland inundation extent of storm surges may be only several hundred meters, so marine-sourced deposits that are distributed several km inland can be identified as tsunami deposits by default. Over both gentle and steep slopes, another difference between tsunami and storm deposits is the total volume deposited, as flow speed over land during a tsunami is faster than during a storm surge. Therefore, the total deposit volume could also be a useful proxy to differentiate tsunami and storm deposits.

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Accepted/In Press date: 22 December 2017
e-pub ahead of print date: 28 December 2017
Published date: 2 February 2018
Additional Information: Publisher Copyright: © 2017 Elsevier B.V.
Keywords: Delft-3D, Numerical simulation, Storm deposit, SWAN, Tsunami deposit

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 494632
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/494632
ISSN: 0037-0738
PURE UUID: 1d3bac3e-8955-4c9d-8355-5e1e74b315af
ORCID for Masashi Watanabe: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-3670-7385

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Date deposited: 11 Oct 2024 16:50
Last modified: 21 Aug 2025 02:52

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Contributors

Author: Masashi Watanabe ORCID iD
Author: Kazuhisa Goto
Author: Jeremy D. Bricker
Author: Fumihiko Imamura

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