Collaborative Research: Tsunami and Tropical Storm Sediment Dynamics and Products

海啸和热带气旋对沿海社区构成严重危害。量化这一风险具有挑战性，部分原因是仪器和历史数据集太短，无法捕捉任何特定地点可能发生的洪水条件的极端范围。保存在沿海沉积物中的海啸和热带气旋沉积为扩大这些记录提供了一种手段。然而，海啸和热带气旋期间沉积物的运动存在很大的不确定性，这阻碍了对这些事件沉积的解释。为了深入了解海啸和热带气旋期间的沉积物输送情况，将根据现代和古沉积沉积的性质进行计算模拟。一种假设是，海啸和热带气旋之间的流动和输送过程有相似之处；因此，可以从同时研究这两种现象中学到很多东西。另一种假设是，海啸和热带气旋沉积中存在自然模式，因此可以通过结合计算模型的高级统计方法来获得沉积属性与其起因事件之间的关联。这项研究将增进对海啸和热带气旋期间泥沙输运的了解，并将提高更确定地预测未来海啸和热带气旋影响的能力，从而制定更具弹性的沿海规划，有可能挽救生命和保护生计。

Tsunamis and tropical cyclones pose a serious hazard to coastal communities. Quantifying this hazard is challenging in part because instrumental and historical datasets are too short to capture the extreme range of flood conditions possible at any particular location. Deposits from tsunamis and tropical cyclones, preserved within coastal sediments, provide a means to extend these records. However, there is significant uncertainty related to the movement of sediment during tsunamis and tropical cyclones, which hinders the interpretation of these event deposits. To gain insight in sediment transport during tsunamis and tropical cyclones, computational modeling, informed by the properties of modern and paleo sedimentary deposits, will be performed. One assumption is that similarities exist in flow and transport processes between tsunamis and tropical cyclones; therefore, much can be learned from studying the two phenomena in tandem. Another assumption is that natural patterns exist in tsunami and tropical cyclone deposits such that correlations between deposit properties and their causative event can be obtained with advanced statistical methods coupled to computational modeling. The study will advance understanding of sediment transport during tsunamis and tropical cyclones and will improve the capability to predict the impact of future tsunami and tropical cyclones with more certainty, resulting in more resilient coastal planning, potentially saving lives and protecting livelihoods.