Abstract Database

TSUNAMI HAZARD ASSESSMENT IN SOUTHERN PERU USING NUMERICAL SIMULATION

MEE13622
MORALES TOVAR Jorge Manuel
Supervisor: Shunichi KOSHIMURA
Country: Peru
Abstract

A tsunami hazard assessment for southern Peru was carried out based on three tsunami simulations, the first two source models were derived from the 1868 Arica earthquake (single fault and two faults), which were modeled by Okal et al. (2006) with a homogeneous slip of 15 meters. The third source is a possible future event selected from twelve heterogeneous slip scenarios constructed by Pulido et al. (2014). They use GPS measurements from a 1991-2000 campaign and also InSAR satellite images to calculate the interseismic plate coupling and then estimated slip distributions. The results indicated 560 subfaults (10 km x 10 km) in a rupture area of 280 km by 200 km. From these twelve scenarios only the one which displaced the maximum volume of water was found and modeled.

 

The simulations were executed using the TUNAMI-N2 code, developed by the Disaster Control Research Center (DCRC), Tohoku University, Japan, with Cartesian coordinates for a nested grid system of four and three domains (four for the historical sources and three for the future scenario). For the two historical sources the results were compared with those obtained by Okal et al. (2006). Using the recorded data available about the wave height reached in cities in Peru and Chile it was possible to validate the model. These results were very similar in the target area, probably due to the existence of the Nazca ridge which works as a limit for the rupture areas.

 

Finally after obtaining the inundation modelling results for the finest regions with 30 meter grid resolution, inundation and maximum velocity maps were produced for the three sources.