RAPID: Reconnaissance of the 11 March 2011 Tohoku, Japan Tsunami

2011年3月11日，日本东北海域发生里氏9.0级地震，引发了一场横跨太平洋的海啸，对整个盆地造成了不同程度的影响。地震和海啸的强度在日本1000多年的漫长历史记录中都是前所未有的。该奖项支持一个勘察调查小组调查这次海啸对日本、太平洋群岛和美国西部海岸线的影响。该小组将与仙台东北大学、东京大学和港口与机场研究所的日本研究人员一起进行侦察，并与教科文组织组织的国际海啸调查小组进行协调。2011年在日本发生的这一事件提供了一个独特的研究机会，因为现在在同一条三陆海岸线上发生了三次具有重大影响的历史性海啸，这可能会区分构造海啸源和可能叠加的滑坡海啸源。从869事件等海啸沉积物中推断出的历史和地质事件的海啸来源和规模需要重新研究。该奖项支持的海啸调查小组将收集高质量的淹没测量数据，使研究界能够推断不同海啸模型的预测能力。海啸目击者视频将被现场校准，以提取水流深度和速度的时间序列。获得的现场数据将与过去实验项目收集的现有实验室数据密切相关地进行分析。主要项目成果将是一个综合的、多尺度的、以地理为参照的海啸破坏和洪泛区特征数据库，并结合数值模型结果。将在接受调查的村庄和接受采访的目击者中进行教育和外展讲座和情况介绍。侦察队将与教科文组织领导的国际海啸勘测队进行协调。对估计为1000年一遇的海啸进行勘察将改变海啸建模和缓解海啸的方式，其影响超出工程范畴。对重大自然事件的灾后勘察对这些事件的特征以及这些灾难性事件所造成的地貌行为和基础设施的性能都产生了重要的新见解。通过对东北海啸的这种研究，研究人员可能能够了解这场灾难造成重大死亡人数的原因。这些测量和观测还将提供重要的信息，这些信息将被用来影响日本和世界其他易受海啸影响的地区的疏散和建筑程序，以防止生命和财产损失，例如卡斯卡迪亚俯冲区产生的海啸对美国太平洋西北部和加州北部海岸线社区的影响。

The 11 March 2011 magnitude 9.0 earthquake off Tohoku in Japan triggered a transpacific tsunami that had basin-wide impact of varying severity. Both the earthquake and tsunami magnitudes are unprecedented in Japan's long historical records of over 1,000 years. This award supports a reconnaissance survey team to investigate the effects of this tsunami along coastlines in Japan, the Pacific Islands, and the western United States. The team will conduct the reconnaissance with Japanese researchers from Tohoku University in Sendai, the University of Tokyo, and the Port and Airport Research Institute, and coordinate with the UNESCO-organized International Tsunami Survey Team. The 2011 event in Japan presents a unique research opportunity since there are now three historic tsunamis with significant impact on the same Sanriku coastline, which may allow differentiating between tectonic and potentially superimposed landslide tsunami sources. The tsunami sources and magnitudes of historic and geologic events inferred from tsunami deposits such as the 869 event need to be revisited. The tsunami survey team supported on this award will collect high quality inundation measurements that will allow the research community to infer the predictive capability of different tsunami models. Tsunami eyewitness videos will be calibrated in situ to extract time series of flow depth and velocity. The obtained field data will be analyzed closely with the existing laboratory data collected by past experimental projects. The primary project deliverable will be a comprehensive multi-scale, geo-referenced database of tsunami damage and flood zone characteristics combined with numerical model results. Education and outreach lectures and briefings will be given at villages surveyed and to eyewitnesses interviewed. The reconnaissance team will coordinate with the UNESCO-led International Tsunami Survey Team. Tsunami reconnaissance of an estimated 1,000-year event will transform tsunami modeling and mitigation with broad implications beyond engineering. Post-disaster reconnaissance following major natural events has yielded significant new insights into both the characteristics of the events as well as the behavior of landforms and performance of infrastructure subjected to these catastrophic events. Through such research into the Tohoku tsunami, researchers may be able to understand the causes of the significant death toll that resulted from this disaster. The measurements and observations will also provide important information that will be used to influence both evacuation and building procedures for the prevention of loss of life and property damage in Japan and in other areas of the world susceptible to tsunamis, such as the impact of a tsunami generated on the Cascadia subduction zone on communities along the U.S. Pacific Northwest and northern California coastlines.