Abstract
We conducted a numerical analysis of the tsunami generated by the 2007 Noto Hanto Earthquake (Mj = 6.9) that occurred on 25 March 2007 near the Noto Peninsula on the northwest coast of Honshu Island, Japan. Our numerical simulation reproduced well the behaviors of the tsunami as recorded at the Wajima tidal observatory and showed that the computed tsunami arrived in Toyama Bay more than 1 h after the earthquake. However, a crew of a small boat in the bay felt the shock and, despite calm weather conditions, their boat capsized just 3 min after the earthquake. Although abnormal tidal surges were recorded at several locations around Toyama Bay, the timing of these is inconsistent with the surges being a direct result of the tsunami generated at the source area of the earthquake. We used “backward wave propagation analysis” to estimate the likely source area of the abnormal tidal surges in the bay and carried out the a simulation of landslide-induced tsunami. Our conclusion is that these abnormal tidal surges were likely caused by a submarine landslide on the steep sea floor on the western side of Toyama Bay.
Article PDF
References
Asahi Newspaper, Damages due to the 2007 Noto Hanto Earthquake at Toyama and Niigata prefectures, http://www.asahi.com/special/070325/TKY200703250271.html, 2007 (in Japanese).
Geographical Survey Institute, Diastrophism due to the 2007 Noto Hanto Earthquake, http://www.gsi.go.jp/WNEW/PRESS-RELEASE/2007/0328/05.pdf, 2007 (in Japanese).
Imai, N., S. Terashima, H. Katayama, T. Nakajima, K. Ikehara, and M. Taniguchi, Geochemical behavior of heavy metals in coastal marine sediments from the eastern margin of the Japan Sea, Bull. Geol. Surv. Jpn., 48, 511–529, 1997 (in Japanese with English abstract).
Imamura, F., Review of tsunami simulation with a finite difference method, in Long-Wave Runup Models, edited by H. Yeh, P. Liu, and C. Synolakis, pp. 25–42, World Scientific Publishing Co., 1995.
Imamura, F. and M. M. A. Imteaz, Long waves in two-layers, Governing equations and numerical model, Sci. Tsunami Haz., 13(1), 3–24, 1995.
JMA (Japan Meteorological Agency), Statistical information of past weather data, http://www.jma.go.jp, 2007 (in Japanese).
Manshiha, L. and D. E. Smylie, The Displacement Fields of Inclined Faults, Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am., 61, 1433–1440, 1971.
Matsui, T., F. Imamura, E. Tajika, Y. Nakano, and Y. Fujisawa, Generation and propagation of a tsunami from the Cretaceous/Tertiary impact event, in Catastrophic Events and Mass Extinctions: Impact and Beyond, C. Koeberl and G. Macleod (Eds), Geol. Soc. Am. Special Paper, 356, 69–77, 2002.
Nakajima, K., Hyperpycnites deposited 700 km away from river mouths in the central Japan Sea, J. Sediment. Res., 76, 60–73, DOI: 10.2110/jsr.2006.13, 2006.
Nakajima, K., M. Satoh, and Y. Okamura, Channel-levee complexes, terminal deep-sea fan and sediment wave fields associated with the Toyama Deep-Sea Channel system in the Japan Sea, Mar. Geol., 147, 25–41, 1998.
Okamoto, K. and M. Sakuta, Numerical Simulation Technique for Time-History Pressure of Floating Structure in Seaquakes, Proceedings of Ocean Cites, 308–311, 1995.
Prime Minister of Japan and His Cabinet, Details of the 2007 Noto Hanto Earthquake, http://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/kikikanri/jisin/isikawa/isikawa1530.html, 2007 (in Japanese).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.
The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
About this article
Cite this article
Abe, I., Goto, K., Imamura, F. et al. Numerical simulation of the tsunami generated by the 2007 Noto Hanto Earthquake and implications for unusual tidal surges observed in Toyama Bay. Earth Planet Sp 60, 133–138 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03352774
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03352774