Tsunamis in the Pacific Ocean: 2011-2012

The 2011 Tohoku earthquake generated a catastrophic tsunami that killed nearly 20,000 people along the coast of Japan and caused the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. The tsunami propagated throughout the Pacific Ocean and affected many other countries, including Russia, the USA, New Zealand, French Polynesia and Chile. This event once again demonstrated the terrible threat of tsunami waves for Pacific countries and the necessity of basin wide international scientific collaboration.§§This volume contains an introduction and 21 scientific papers, including 12 papers on aspects of the 2011 Tohoku event. The papers report detailed field survey results on the coasts of Japan and Russia, wave dynamics based on these surveys, source mechanism of the earthquake and far-field impacts of the Tohoku tsunami. Other papers report on 2012 tsunamis in El Salvador, the Philippines, off the east coast of Honshu and the landmark Haida Gwaii event off the west coast of British Columbia, Canada. A final set of papers discusses some remaining challenging questions in tsunami science and warning. The volume is of interest to scientists and practitioners involved in all aspects of tsunamis from earthquake source processes to transoceanic wave propagation and coastal impacts. Postgraduate students in geophysics, oceanography and coastal engineering as well as students in the broader geosciences, civil and environmental engineering will also find the book to be a valuable resource, as it combines recent case studies with advances in tsunami science and natural hazards mitigation.§