Modeling of tsunami wave height distribution functions along the east coast of Sakhalin Island

Abstract

The functions of the distribution of tsunami wave heights along the eastern coast of Sakhalin Island from sources located along the Kuril Islands are being studied. Known information about the tsunami on Sakhalin is given. Many of them were modeled numerically, which made it possible to assess the hazard of tsunami waves. The present work focuses on the functions of distributing the heights of tsunami waves, which were not previously calculated for this region at all. To this case, calculations were made of the propagation of tsunami waves from hypothetical strong earthquakes with M = 8.2 located in the regions of the Northern, Middle and Southern Kuril Islands. These calculations were carried out using the NAMI-DANCE computational code, which solves non-linear shallow water equations using nested grids with a minimum grid is about 9 m. Having no reliable coastal topography, the modeling was carried out to a depth of about 3 m. The results of the calculations confirmed that the calculated functions of the distribution of tsunami wave heights along the eastern coast of Sakhalin are well approximated by the lognormal function. The parameters of these distributions depend on the location of the source even with the same earthquake parameters, which once again emphasizes the significant role of seabed bathymetry on the characteristics of a tsunami on the shore.