The 2010 chilean and the 2011 Tohoku tsunami waves impact to rivers in the Tohoku Region, Japan

Abstract

As a result when tsunami invades into river, it may not only a threat of damages to the banks but also cause the environmental problem such as inundation. Therefore, study of tsunami impacts to rivers becomes more important. The main objectives of this study are to investigate the tsunami wave propagation at different river morphologies based on real time measurements during the 2010 Chilean Tsunami and 2011 Tohoku Tsunami events. The aim is to learn empirically from the last extreme events tsunamis in order to suggest a better solution in terms of river and coastal management in the future. The analyzed results have been shown that the tsunami wave can be affected up to several tens kilometer upstream of a large river and the measured tsunami travel time inside the river is almost similar to the tsunami travel time calculated by using the long wave theory.