Tsunamis are water waves triggered by impulsive geologic events such as sea floor deformation, landslides, slumps, subsidence, volcanic eruptions and bolide impacts. Tsunamis can inflict significant damage and casualties both nearfield and after evolving over long propagation distances and impacting distant coastlines. Tsunamis can also effect geomorphologic changes along the coast. Understanding tsunami generation and evolution is of paramount importance for protecting coastal population at risk, coastal structures and the natural environment. Accurately and reliably predicting the initial waveform and the associated coastal effects of tsunamis remains one of the most vexing problems in geophysics, and -with few exceptions- has resisted routine numerical computation or data collection solutions. While ten years ago, it was believed that the generation problem was adequately understood for useful predictions, it is now clear that it is not, especially nearfield. By contrast, the runup problem earlier believed intractable is now well understood for all but the most extreme breaking wave events.

Inhalt

1. General Aspects of Tsunami Researches.- 1-1. Tsunamis of Seismic Origin; Science, Disasters and Mitigation.- 1-2. Needs and Perspectives of Tsunami Research in Europe.- 2. Historical Tsunamis.- 2-1. Identification of Slide-generated Tsunamis in the Historical Catalogues.- 2-2. Updating and Revision of the European Tsunami Catalogue.- 2-3. Tsunami of Sarkyö-Mürefte 1912 Earthquake: Western Marmara, Turkey.- 2-4. Spatial and Temporal Periodicity in the Pacific Tsunami Occurrence.- 3. Submarine Landslides and Tsunami Generation.- 3-1. Submarine Landslide Generated Waves Modeled Using Depth-Integrated Equations.- 3-2. Near Field Amplitudes of Tsunami from Submarine Slumps and Slides.- 3-3. Numerical Modeling of Tsunami Generation by Submarine and Subaerial landslides.- 3-4. Tsunami Simulation Taking Into Account Seismically Induced Dynamic Seabed Displacement and Acoustic Effects of Water.- 3-5. Impulsive Tsunami Generation by Rapid Bottom Deflections at Initially Uniform Depth.- 3-6. Analytical Models of Tsunami Generation by Submarine Landslides.- 3-7. Tsunami Generation in Compressible Ocean of Variable Depth.- 3-8. Tsunami Wave Excitation by a Local Floor Disturbance.- 3-9. Effects of Tsunami at Sissano Lagoon, Papua New Guinea: Submarine-Landslide and Tectonics Origins.- 3-10. Natural Gas Hydrates as a Cause of Underwater Landslides: A Rewiev.- 3-11. Coastal Deformation Occurred During the August 17, 1999 ?zmit Earthquake.- 4. Tsunami Propagation and Coastal Impact.- 4-1. A Review of Some Tsunamis in Canada.- 4-2. Synthetic Tsunami Simulations for the French Coasts.- 4-3. Inundation Modeling of the 1964 Tsunami in Kodiak Island, Alaska.- 4-4. A Method for Mathematical Modelling of Tsunami Runup on a Shore.- 4-5. Evaluation of Tsunami Hazard for the SouthernKamchatka Coast Using Historical and Paleotsunami data.- 4-6. Tsunami Hazards Associated With Explosion- Collapse Processes of a Dome Complex on Minoan Thera.- 4-7. Possible Tsunami Deposits Discovered on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast and Some Applications.- 4-8. Influence of the Atmospheric Wave Velocity in the Coastal Amplification of Meteotsunamis.- 4-9. Impact of Surface Waves on the Coastal Ecosystems.- 5. Mitigation.- 5-1. Engineering Standards for Marine Oil Terminals and Other Natural Hazard Threats.- 5-2. A Tsunami Mitigation Program within the California Earthquake Loss Reduction Plan.- 5-3. Short-Term Inundation Forecasting For Tsunamis.- 5-4. Quantification of Tsunamis: A Review.- 5-5. Rubble Mound Breakwaters under Tsunami Attack.- 5-6. Vulnerability Assessment as a Tool for Hazard Mitigation.- 5-7. Producing Tsunami Inundation Maps; the California Experience.