Effects of Tsunamis in the Gulf of Alaska

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This research project improves an engineering understanding of the tsunami damage by verifying tsunami predictive models and estimating the possible effects of tsunamis along the coast of Alaska and Canada (Northern Pacific Coastal region). These areas have been known to be prone to large earthquakes and subsequent tsunamis. This study provides a systematic approach to understand the tsunami runup characteristics for the most densely populated regions near the Gulf of Alaska which are within the reach of a possible tsunami. A time-dependent, two-dimensional numerical model will be developed to study the generation and propagation of a tsunami from a major earthquake offshore of Alaska. The results will then be verified based on actual tsunami data in this region which are available from the Alaska Tsunami Warning Center (ATWC) and from the Institute of Ocean Sciences in Sidney, B.C., and the data on deep sea measurements of the region from the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) in Seattle.