- Title
- Tsunami Runup Database
- Abstract
- The NOAA/WDS tsunami database is a listing of historical tsunami source events and runup locations throughout the world that range in date from 2000 B.C. to the present. The events were gathered from scientific and scholarly sources, regional and worldwide catalogs, tide gauge data, deep ocean sensor data, individual event reports, and unpublished works. There are currently over 2,000 source events in the database with event validities >0 (-1 = erroneous entry, 0 = seiche). The global distribution of these events is 61% Pacific Ocean, 22% Mediterranean Sea, 7% Atlantic Ocean, 6% Indian Ocean, 4% Caribbean Sea, and 1% Black Sea. There are over 13,000 runup locations where tsunami effects were observed. The global distribution of these locations is 82% Pacific Ocean, 9% Indian Ocean, 4% Mediterranean, 3% Atlantic Ocean, and 2% Caribbean Sea. Tsunamis, commonly called seismic sea waves--or incorrectly, tidal waves--have been responsible for over 500,000 fatalities throughout the world (227,898 were from the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami). These events are somewhat rare. Major tsunamis occur in the Pacific Ocean region only about once per decade. Therefore, it is important to learn as much as possible from the relatively short history available. "Tsunami" is a Japanese word meaning "harbor wave." It is a water wave or a series of waves generated by an impulsive vertical displacement of the surface of the ocean or other body of water. Other terms for "tsunami" found in the literature include: seismic sea wave, Flutwellen, vloedgolven, raz de mare, vagues sismique, maremoto, and, incorrectly, tidal wave. The term "tidal wave" is frequently used in the older literature and in popular accounts, but is now considered incorrect. Tides are produced by the gravitational attraction of the sun and moon and occur predictably with twelve hour periods. The effects of a tsunami may be increased or decreased depending on the level of the tide, but otherwise the two phenomena are independent.
- Publication Date
- Dec. 7, 2015, 3:14 p.m.
- Category
- Geoscientific Information
- information pertaining to earth sciences. Examples: geophysical features and processes, geology, minerals, sciences dealing with the composition, structure and origin of the earth s rocks, risks of earthquakes, volcanic activity, landslides, gravity information, soils, permafrost, hydrogeology, erosion
- Regions
- Global
- Responsible
- andy
- Maintenance Frequency
- There Are No Plans To Update The Data
- Purpose
- For use in the ThinkHazard! (THOR) project
- Language
- English
- Supplemental Information
- No information provided
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