As a result of the subduction and other geological processes, there is the presence of some bathymetric features which significantly change the gradient of the seabed near Ecuador, such as the oceanic trench and the submarine Esmeraldas canyon. The main purpose of this study is to give a better understanding of how these alterations in the bathymetry affect the tsunami propagation by conducting ray tracing analysis and tsunami simulations using different bathymetry data sources of GEBCO, ETOPO, and INOCAR, for local and distant events along the Pacific and the coast of Ecuador. In addition, we conducted tsunami propagation simulation using TUNAMI code with a nested grid system of six domains. We used general and high resolution bathymetric data and analyzed the results in all six domains. From the results of both analyses, we evaluated the consistency between the directivity of the rays and the wave’s propagation for focusing areas such as Esmeraldas. We observed a faster propagation of the wave due to the particular bathymetric profile of the canyon in front of Esmeraldas, which made the first wave arrive at this city; with this result we confirmed the effect of local bathymetry along the tsunami path. This study can be used as a preliminary evaluation to determine the vulnerability of specific locations along the coast regarding the changes in the local bathymetry and topographic submarine features. Therefore, in the future we expect to conduct further analysis under other considerations not estimated in the present research.
Keywords: Tsunami simulation, ray tracing, bathymetry effect, propagation path, directivity.