Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Waveform and Spectral Analyses of the 2011 Japan Tsunami Records on Tide Gauge and DART Stations Across the Pacific Ocean

  • Published:
Pure and Applied Geophysics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We studied the 11 March 2011 Tohoku tsunami through analysis of the sea level records from 21 tide gauge and 16 DART (Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis) stations from across the Pacific Ocean. The extreme power of this trans-oceanic tsunami was indicated by the trough-to-crest heights of 3.03 m at Arena Cove on the western coast of the USA and 3.94 m at Coquimbo on the southern coast of Chile. The average value of the maximum amplitude was 163.9 cm for the examined tide gauge records. At many coastal tide gauge stations the largest wave arrived several hours after the first arrival of the tsunami wave, and the tsunami lasted for a long time with an average duration of 4 days. On the contrary, at most of the DART stations in the deep ocean, the first wave was the largest, the tsunami amplitudes were smaller with an average maximum of 51.2 cm, and the durations were shorter with an average of 2 days. The two dominant tsunami periods on the DART records were 37 and 67.4 min, which are possibly attributed to the width and length of the tsunami source fault, respectively. The dimensions of the tsunami source was estimated as 233 km × 424 km. Wavelet analyses of tide gauge and DART records showed that most of the tsunami energy was distributed at the wide period band of around 10–80 min during the first hour after the tsunami arrival, then it was concentrated in a relatively narrower band. The frequency-time plots showed the switches and lapses of tsunami energy at the 35- and 65-min period bands.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Asiaone (2011). One killed as tsunami hit Indonesian shores, news published on March 13, 2011 available at: http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Asia/Story/A1Story20110313-267835.html.

  • Ben-Menahem, A., and Rosenman, M. (1972). Amplitude patterns of tsunami waves from submarine earthquakes, J. Geophys. Res., 77:3097–3128.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bernard, E.N., González, F.I., Meinig, C., and Milburn, H.B. (2001). Early detection and real-time reporting of deep-ocean tsunamis, Proc. Int. Tsunami Symp. 2001, Seattle, WA, pp. 97–108.

  • Dengler, L., and Uslu, B. (2011). Effects of Harbor Modification on Crescent City, California’s Tsunami Vulnerability, Pure App. Geophys., 167 (6–7):1175–1185.

  • Dragani, W.C., D’onofrio, E.E., Grismeyer, W., Fiore, M.E. (2006). Tide gauge observations of the Indian ocean tsunami, December 26, 2004, in Buenos Aires coastal waters, Argentina, Cont. Shelf Res., 26:1543–1550.

  • Fire and Disaster Management Agency of Japan (2011). available at: (http://www.fdma.go.jp/en/), page visited on Jan. 5, 2012.

  • Fujii, Y., and Satake, K. (2007). Tsunami Source of the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman Earthquake inferred from Tide Gauge and Satellite Data, Bull. Seism. Soc. Am., 97(1A):S192–S207.

  • Fujii, Y., Satake, K., Sakai, S., Shinohara, M., Kanazawa, T. (2011). Tsunami source of the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake, Earth Planets Space, 63:815–820.

  • Goupillaud, P., Grossman, A., and Morlet, J. (1984). Cycle-Octave and related transforms in seismic signal analysis, Geoexploration, 23:85–102.

  • IOC, IHO, BODC (2003). Centenary edition of the GEBCO digital atlas, published on CD-ROM on behalf of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission and the International Hydrographic Organization as part of the general bathymetric chart of the oceans. British oceanographic data centre, Liverpool.

  • JCG (Japan Coast Guard) (2011), Hydrographic and Oceanographic Department, at: http://www1.kaiho.mlit.go.jp/KANKYO/TIDE/real_time_tide/sel/index_e.htm (visited on December 2011).

  • Joseph, A., Odametey, J.T., Nkebi, E.K., Pereira, A., Prabhudesai, R.G., Mehra, P., Rabinovich, A.B., Kumar, V., Prabhudesai, S., Woodworth, P. (2006). The 26 December 2004 Sumatra tsunami recorded on the coast of West Africa, Afr. J. Mar. Science, 28(3&4):705–712.

  • IOC (Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission), 2011, Sea Level Station Monitoring Facility, at: http://www.ioc-sealevelmonitoring.org/map.php (visited on December, 2011).

  • Kaiser, G. (1994). A Friendly Guide to Wavelets. Birkhäuser, 300 p.

  • Kato, T., Terada, Y., Nishimura, H., Nagai, T., and Koshimura, S. (2011). Tsunami records due to the 2010 Chile Earthquake observed by GPS buoys established along the Pacific coast of Japan, Earth Planets Space, 63:e5–e8.

  • Kulikov, E.A., Rabinovich, A.B., Thomson, R.E., Bornhold, B.D. (1996). The landslide tsunami of November 3, 1994. Skagway Harbour, Alaska, J. Geophys. Res., 10 (C3):6609–6615.

  • Kulikov, E (2006). Dispersion of the Sumatra Tsunami waves in the Indian Ocean detected by satellite altimetry, Russ. J. Earth Sci. 8, ES4004, doi:10.2205/2006ES000214.

  • Lander, J.F., Lockridge, P.A., and Kozuch, M.J. (1993). Tsunamis Affecting the West Coast of the United States 1806–1992, NGDC Key to Geophysical Record Documentation No. 29, NOAA, NESDIS, NGDC, 242 p.

  • Liu, P.L.F., Cho, Y.S., Yoon, S.B., and Seo, S.N. (1995). Numerical simulations of the 1960 Chilean tsunami propagation and inundation at Hilo, Hawaii, in: Tsunami: Progress in Prediction, Disaster Prevention and Warning, Y. TSUCHIYA and N. SHUTO (eds.), Kluwer Academic Publishers, 99–115.

  • MathWorks (2012). MATLAB user manual, The Math Works Inc., MA, USA, 282 p.

  • NOAA (National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration), 2011, Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS), National Ocean Service (NOS), at: http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/tsunami/# (visited on December 2011).

  • Okada Y. (1985). Surface deformation due to shear and tensile faults in a half-space, Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am., 75(4):1135–1154.

  • Oppenheim, A.V. and, Schafer, R.W., (1975). Digital signal processing. Prentice-Hall publications, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, USA, ISBN 0-13-214635-5, 585 p.

  • Rabinovich, A.B. (1997). Spectral analysis of tsunami waves: Separation of source and topography effects, J. Geophys. Res., 102 (12):663–676.

  • Rabinovich, A.B., and Thomson, R.E. (2007). The 26 December 2004 Sumatra Tsunami: Analysis of Tide Gauge Data from the World Ocean Part 1. Indian Ocean and South Africa, Pure App. Geophys., 164:261–308.

  • Rabinovich, A.B., Thomson, R.E., and Stephenson, F.E.(2006). The Sumatra tsunami of 26 December 2004 as observed in the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans. Surv. Geophys., 27:647–677.

  • Satake, K. (1988). Effects of bathymetry on tsunami propagation: application of ray tracing to tsunamis, Pure App. Geophys., 126 (1):27–36.

  • Satake, K., and Kanamori, H. (1991). Use of tsunami waveforms for earthquake source study, Nat. Hazards, 4:193–208.

  • Takahashi, S., et al. (2011). Urgent survey for 2011 great east Japan earthquake and tsunami disaster in ports and coasts, Technical note of the Port and Airport and Research Institute (PARI), No. 1231, April 2011, 200 p (in Japanese with English abstract).

  • Titov, V., Rabinovich, A.B., Mofjeld, H.O., Thomson, R.E., and Gonzalez, F.I. (2005). The global reach of the 26 December 2004 Sumatra tsunami. Science 309:2045–2048.

  • Torrence, C., and Compo, G.P. (1998). A practical guide to wavelet analysis. B. Amer. Meteor. Soc. 79 (1):61–78.

  • USGS (US Geological Survey), (2011), Earthquake online catalog: Magnitude 9.0- Near the coast of Honshu, Japan. Available at: (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/usc0001xgp.php), page visited on Jan. 5, 2012.

  • Watanabe, H. (1972). Statistical studies on the wave-form and maximum height of large tsunami, J. Oceanogr. Soc. Japan 28:229–241.

  • Welch, P. (1967). The use of fast Fourier transform for the estimation of power spectra: A method based on time averaging over short, modified periodograms, IEEE Trans. Audio Electroacoust AE-15:70–73.

  • Wfaa, (2011), Tsunami sweeps 5 to sea, California and Oregon sustain damage, news published on March 11, 2011, available at: http://www.wfaa.com/news/world/Tsunami-sweeps-5-to-sea-damage-to-Calfi-and-Ore-117827733.html.

  • Yoshida,Y., Ueno, H., Muto, D., Aoki, S. (2011). Source process of the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake with the combination of teleseismic and strong motion data. Earth Planets Space 63:565–569.

Download references

Acknowledgments

The wavelet package by Torrence and Compo (1998) was used in this study. The tide gauge data used in this study were provided through the Japan Coast Guard (JCG), USA National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC). The first author is grateful to the Matsumae International Foundation in Japan (MIF) for supporting this research. This article benefited from detailed reviews by Prof. Alexander Rabinovich (the editor) and two anonymous reviewers. We sincerely thank them for the comments that improved this article.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, Chamran Highway, Pol-e-Gisha, P.O.Box: 14115-397, Tehran, Iran

    Mohammad Heidarzadeh

  2. Earthquake Research Institute (ERI), University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

    Mohammad Heidarzadeh & Kenji Satake

Authors
  1. Mohammad Heidarzadeh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Kenji Satake
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mohammad Heidarzadeh.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Heidarzadeh, M., Satake, K. Waveform and Spectral Analyses of the 2011 Japan Tsunami Records on Tide Gauge and DART Stations Across the Pacific Ocean. Pure Appl. Geophys. 170, 1275–1293 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-012-0558-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-012-0558-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation