Coupling of dispersive tsunami propagation and shallow water coastal response

Abstract

The key issue of this article is the concept of combining a model dedicated to dispersive large scale propagation of tsunamis with ComMIT, developed and made freely available by NOAA, that is a state of the art tool for tsunami impact studies. First, the main motivation for this approach, namely the need for efficient computation of runup of tsunamis from submarine/subaerial slides and certain types of earthquake, is discussed. Then the models involved are presented. We describe in some detail the dispersive model component which is a Boussinesq type model that is recently developed for tsunami propagation purposes. Finally, the performance and flexibility of the joint model approach is illustrated by two case studies including inundation computations at selected cites. The potentially disastrous, but small probability, flank-collapse event at the La Palma Island is used as an example of slide generated tsunamis where dispersion plays an important role. The second example is a tsunami from a potential inverse thrust fault at the Lesser Antilles. In this case dispersion during propagation is important for some regions, but not for others.