Field Survey of the 2003 Tokachi-Oki Earthquake Tsunami and Simulation at the Ootsu Harbor Located at the Pacific Coast of Hokkaido, Japan

Abstract

Field survey for the 2003 Tokachi-oki earthquake tsunami was conducted by the scientists from all over Japan [Tanioka et al., 2004a, b]. Large tsunami heights of about 4 m were observed at Hyakuninhama to the east of Cape Erimo and along the beach between Horokayanto and Oikamanai. Those places are close to the source region of the earthquake. In general, tsunami heights gradually decreased to the east and to the west away from those two locations except at Mabiro where a large tsunami height of about 4m was locally observed. The most intensive tsunami survey was conducted at the Ootsu harbor. The survey results indicate that the quay of the harbor was completely submerged by the tsunami, but the road around the harbor was not. Numerical computation of the 2003 Tokachi-oki tsunami was carried out by solving the nonlinear shallow water equations with a moving boundary condition near the Ootsu harbor. The computed tsunami at the Ootsu harbor well explains the above observations.