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Effects of Harbor Modification on Crescent City, California’s Tsunami Vulnerability

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Abstract

More damaging tsunamis have impacted Crescent City, California in historic times than any other location on the West Coast of the USA. Crescent City’s harbor has undergone significant modification since the early 20th century, including construction of several breakwaters, dredging, and a 200 × 300 m2 small boat basin. In 2006, a M w 8.3 earthquake in the Kuril Islands generated a moderate Pacific-wide tsunami. Crescent City recorded the highest amplitudes of any tide gauge in the Pacific and was the only location to experience structural damage. Strong currents damaged docks and boats within the small boat basin, causing more than US $20 million in damage and replacement costs. We examine how modifications to Crescent City’s harbor may have affected its vulnerability to moderate tsunamis such as the 2006 event. A bathymetric grid of the basin was constructed based on US Army Corps of Engineers soundings in 1964 and 1965 before the construction of the small boat basin. The method of splitting tsunamis was used to estimate tsunami water heights and current velocities at several locations in the harbor using both the 1964–1965 grid and the 2006 bathymetric grid for the 2006 Kuril event and a similar-sized source along the Sanriku coast of Japan. Model velocity outputs are compared for the two different bathymetries at the tide gauge location and at six additional computational sites in the harbor. The largest difference between the two grids is at the small boat basin entrance, where the 2006 bathymetry produces currents over three times the strength of the currents produced by the 1965 bathymetry. Peak currents from a Sanriku event are comparable to those produced by the 2006 event, and within the boat basin may have been higher. The modifications of the harbor, and in particular the addition of the small boat basin, appear to have contributed to the high current velocities and resulting damage in 2006 and help to explain why the 1933 M w 8.4–8.7 Sanriku tsunami caused no damage at Crescent City.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Thomas Kendall of the San Francisco Army Corps of Engineers office for providing the microfiche records of Crescent City soundings and Richard Young, Crescent City Harbor Master, for his recollections of the 2006 tsunami. Thanks to Costas Synolakis, Orville Magoon, Vasily Titov, and Aggeliki Barberopoulou for their ideas and comments as this project developed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geology Department, Humboldt State University, #1 Harpst St, Arcata, CA, 95521, USA

    Lori Dengler

  2. Joint Institute for the Study of Ocean and Atmosphere, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98105, USA

    Burak Uslu

  3. Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, NOAA, 7600 Sand Point Way NE, Seattle, WA, 98115, USA

    Burak Uslu

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  1. Lori Dengler
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  2. Burak Uslu
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Correspondence to Lori Dengler.

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Submitted to: Pure and Applied Geophysics (PAGEOPGH) Topical Issue on Tsunami, 30 December 2009.

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Dengler, L., Uslu, B. Effects of Harbor Modification on Crescent City, California’s Tsunami Vulnerability. Pure Appl. Geophys. 168, 1175–1185 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-010-0224-8

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