Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 08/24/2008 - 13:42
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Kuril Islands Biocomplexity 08

how high do you think the tsumi waves can get at onekotan?Undecided

                                                                                   jacobCool

Thu, 08/28/2008 - 15:37

KBP Team

Jacob - There are a lot of different factors that will determine how high a particular tsunami will run-up: magnitude of the earthquake; depth of the earthquake (both in terms of the earth's crust and the ocean water); the bathymetry, or underwater topography; and the proximity of the shoreline to the earthquake.
Onekotan is not terribly close to the epicenter of the 2006 earthquake, and that earthquake was not particularly large, about a 7.6 . . . (I don't remember exactly what the magnitude was, and Jody and Bre just left for the airport on their way to Sicily for their next field project!). Even so, this summer Jody and Bre measured run-up on Onekotan of about 10 m. That's over 30 feet of water! And even though the 2006 earthquake in the central Kuril Islands was not particularly large, it sent a tsunami all the way to California, where a smaller wave damaged several boats in Crescent City.
I asked Jody and Bre what "normal" run-up heights might be on Onekotan. They said that for tsunamis caused either by local earthquakes, or by particularly large earthquakes within the region, 20 m is not unreasonable. That's a LOT of water!
--Dr. E

Tue, 09/02/2008 - 18:11

Guest

thanks for answering that for me do you think a 10.0 magnitude could happen? and where?                                                       jacob

Mon, 09/08/2008 - 10:33

KBP Team

Gosh, I don't know!  I guess that since they have 10.0 on the scale that yes, it is theoretically possible.  But I don't know what part of the world would be likely to see that magnitude of an earthquake.  We would have to ask Jody or Bre about that.  But they are both working in Sicily until the end of September!
 
---Dr. E