Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Source Models and Near-Field Impact of the 1 April 2007 Solomon Islands Tsunami

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

Abstract

Within weeks of the Solomon Islands earthquake of 1 April 2007, international tsunami survey teams discovered important biomarkers of crust rupture and tsunami heights along the islands’ coastlines. Deep-ocean tsunameters recorded the tsunami waves of this event, enabling a real-time inversion of the tsunami source and model evaluation of near-field tsunami impact. The survey measurements provide valuable datasets for further confirmation of the tsunami source of the 1 April 2007 Solomon earthquake. These survey results also aided investigation of the correlation between sources determined by use of tsunameter records and those derived from seismometer records or crust-rupture measurements. In this study, to assess the near-field tsunami impact, we developed tsunami inundation models for the Solomon Islands, including tsunami waveforms, co-seismic land-level changes, and tsunami height distributions on individual islands. Compared with seismic-derived tsunami sources, modeling results based on the tsunameter-derived tsunami sources were a good match with field survey measurements. These results highlight the accuracy and efficiency of the tsunameter-derived tsunami source in modeling the near-field tsunami impact along a complex archipelago. We show that the source models, although derived by use of different methods, are all suited to initiation of inundation models developed for Solomon Islands. As these source models become available in real time or near real time, they can be implemented immediately in the inundation models to provide rapid guidance on tsunami hazard assessment, focused search and rescue operations, and post-event recovery and reconstruction.

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
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10

References

  • Baba, T., Mleczko, R., Burbidge, D., Cummins, P.R., and Thio, H.K. (2008), The effect of the Great Barrier Reef on the propagation of the 2007 Solomon Islands tsunami recorded in northeastern Australia. Pure Appl. Geophys. 165, 2003–2018, doi:10.1007/s00024-008-0418-5.

  • Becker, J. J., Sandwell, D. T., Smith, W. H. F., Braud, J., Binder, B., Depner, J., Fabre, D., Factor, J., Ingalls, S., Kim, S-H., Ladner, R., Marks, K., Nelson, S., Pharaoh, A., Sharman, G., Trimmer, R., von Rosenburg, J., Wallace, G., and Weatherall. P. (2009), Global bathymetry and elevation data at 30 arc seconds resolution: SRTM30_PLUS. Marine Geodesy 32, 355–371, doi:10.1080/01490410903297766.

  • Bernard, E.N., and Titov, V.V. (2007), Improving tsunami forecast skill using deep ocean observations. Mar. Technol. Soc. J. 40(3), 23–26.

  • Bernard, E., Y. Wei, L. Tang, and V.V. Titov (2014), Impact of near-field, deep-ocean tsunami observations on forecasting the 7 December 2012 Japanese tsunami. Pure and Appl. Geophys., 171(12), 3483–3491, doi:10.1007/s00024-013-0720-8.

  • Bird, P. (2003), An updated digital model of plate boundaries. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems 4, 1027, doi:10.1029/2001GC000252.

  • Burwell, D., Tolkova, E. and Chawla, A. (2007), Diffusion and dispersion characterization of a numerical tsunami model. Ocean Modelling 19(1–2), 10–30.

  • Chen, T., Newman, A.V., Feng, L., and Fritz, H.M. (2009), Slip distribution from the 1 April 2007 Solomon Islands earthquake: A unique image of near-trench rupture. Geophys. Res. Lett. 36, L16307, doi:10.1029/2009GL039496.

  • Farr, T.G., Rosen, P.A., Caro, E., Crippen, R., Duren, R., Hensley, S., Kobrick, M., Paller, M., Rodriguez, E., Roth, L., Seal, D., Shaffer, D., Shimada, J., Umland, J., Werner, M., Oskin, M., Burbank, D., and Alsdorf, D. (2007), The shuttle radar topography mission. Rev. Geophys. 45, RG2004, doi:10.1029/2005RG000183.

  • Fritz, H.M., and Kalligeris, N. (2008), Ancestral heritage saves tribes during 1 April 2007 Solomon Islands tsunami. Geophysical Research Letters 35, L01607, doi:10.1029/2007GL031654.

  • Fritz, H.M., Borrero, J.C., Synolakis, C.E., Okal, E.A., Weiss, R., Lynett, P.J., Titov, V.V., Foteinis, S., Jaffe, B.E., Liu, P.L.-F., and Chan, I.-C. (2011), Insights on the 2009 South Pacific tsunami in Samoa and Tonga from field surveys and numerical simulations. Earth Sci. Rev. 107, 66–75, doi:10.1016/j.earscirev.2011.03.004.

  • Fritz, H.M., Papantoniou, A., Biukoto, L., Albert, G., and Wei, Y. (2014), The Solomon Islands tsunami of 6 February 2013 in the Santa Cruz Islands: Field survey and modeling. Abstract EGU2014-15777 presented at EGU General Assembly, Vienna, Austria, 27 April–2 May 2014.

  • Fujii, Y., and Satake, K. (2008), Tsunami source of the November 2006 and January 2007 great Kuril earthquakes. Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am. 98, 1559–1571.

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

  • Furlong, K.P., Lay, T., and Ammon, C.J. (2009), A great earthquake rupture across a rapidly evolving three-plate boundary. Science 324, 226–228.

  • Gelfenbaum, G.R., Apotsos, A.A., Jaffe, B.E., Watt, S., Peck, B., Lynett, P.J., Richmond, B.M., and Buckley, M.L. (2009), Effects of fringing reefs on tsunami inundation: American Samoa (abs.). American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, San Francisco, Calif., 14–18 December 2009.

  • Gica, E., Spillane, M., Titov, V.V., Chamberlin, C., and Newman, J.C. (2008), Development of the forecast propagation database for NOAA’s Short-term Inundation Forecast for Tsunamis (SIFT). NOAA Tech. Memo. OAR PMEL-139, 89 pp.

  • González, F.I., Geist, E.L., Jaffe, B., Kânoğlu, U., Mofjeld, H., Synolakis, C.E., Titov, V.V, Arcas, D., Bellomo, D., Carlton, D., Horning, T., Johnson, J., Newman, J., Parsons, T., Peters, R., Peterson, C., Priest, G., Venturato, A., Weber, J., Wong, F., and Yalciner, A. (2009), Probabilistic tsunami hazard assessment at Seaside, Oregon, for near- and far-field seismic source. J. Geophys. Res. 114, C11023, doi:10.1029/2008JC005132.

  • Hayes, G.P. (2011), Rapid source characterization of the 2011 Mw 9.0 off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku earthquake. Earth Planets Space 63, 529–534.

  • Helen, P. (2008), Inventory of geospatial data and options for tsunami inundation and risk modeling: Solomon Islands, SOPAC/GA Tsunami Hazard Assessment Project Report 04, 72 pp.

  • Ji, C. (2007), Finite fault model: rupture process of the 2007 April 1, magnitude 8.1, Solomon Islands earthquake. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqinthenews/2007/us2007aqbk/finite_fault.php.

  • Ji, C., Wald, D.J., and Helmberger, D.V. (2002), Source description of the 1999 Hector Mine, California earthquake; Part 1: Wavelet domain inversion theory and resolution analysis. Bull. Seism. Soc. Am. 92(4), 1192–1207.

  • Johnson, J.M. (1999), Heterogeneous coupling along Alaska-Aleutians as inferred from tsunami, seismic, and geodetic inversions. Advances in Geophysics, 39, 1–116.

  • Johnson, J.M., Satake, K., Holdahl, S.R., and Sauber, J. (1996), The 1964 Prince William Sound earthquake: Joint inversion of tsunami and geodetic data. J. Geophys. Res. 101, 523–532.

  • Kanamori, H. (1977), The energy release in great earthquakes. J. Geophys. Res. 82(20), 2981–2987, doi:10.1029/JB082i020p02981.

  • Løvholt, F., Pederson, G. and Glimsdal, S. (2010), Coupling of dispersive tsunami propagation and shallow water coastal response. The Open Oceanography Journal 4, 71–82.

  • Lubis, A.M., and Isezaki, N. (2009), Shoreline changes and vertical displacement of the 2 April 2007 Solomon Islands earthquake M w 8.1 revealed by ALOS PALSAR images. Physics and Chemistry of the Earth 34, 409–415.

  • McAdoo, B.C., Fritz, H., Jackson, K.L., Kalligeris, N., Bonte-Grapentin, M., Moore, A.L., Billy, D., and Tiano, B. (2008), Solomon Islands tsunami, one year later. EOS Transactions American Geophysical Union 89(18), 169–170.

  • Meinig, C., Stalin, S.E., Nakamura, A.I., González, F., and Milburn, H.G. (2005), Technology developments in real-time tsunami measuring, monitoring and forecasting. In Oceans 2005 MTS/IEEE, 19–23 September 2005, Washington, D.C.

  • Newman, A.V., Feng, L., Fritz, H.M., Lifton, Z.M., Kalligeris, N., and Wei, Y. (2011), The energetic 2010 Mw 7.1 Solomon Islands tsunami earthquake. Geophys. J. Int. 186, 775–781, doi:10.1111/j.1365-246X.2011.05057.x.

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

  • Okal, E.A., and Synolakis, C.E. (2004), Source discriminants for near-field tsunamis. Geophys. J. Int. 158, 899–912, doi:10.1111/j/1365-246X.2004.02347.x.

  • Okal, E.A., and Titov, V.V. (2007), M TSU : Recovering seismic moments from tsunameter records. Pure Appl. Geophys. 164 (2–3), 355–378, doi:10.1007/s00024-006-0180-5.

  • Paros, J., Bernard, E., Delaney, J., Meinig, C., Spillane, M., Migliacio, P., Tang, L., Chadwick, W., Schaad, T., and Stalin, S. (2011), Breakthrough underwater technology holds promise for improved local tsunami warnings. In Symposium for Underwater Technology (UT), 2011 IEEE—2011 Workshop on Scientific Use of Submarine Cables and Related Technologies (SSC), 5–8 April 2011.

  • Percival, D.B., Denbo, D.W., Eble, M.C., Gica, E., Mofjeld, H.O., Spillane, M.C., Tang, L., and Titov, V.V. (2011), Extraction of tsunami source coefficients via inversion of DART ® buoy data. Nat. Hazards 58(1), 567–590, doi:10.1007/s11069-010-9688-1.

  • Pires, C., and Miranda, P. (2001), Tsunami waveform inversion by adjoint methods. Journal of Geophysical Research 106(C9), 19,773–19,796.

  • Rodriguez, E., Morris, C.S., Belz, J.E., Chapin, E.C., Martin, J.M., Daffer. W., and Hensley, S. (2005), An assessment of the SRTM topographic products. Tech. Report JPL D-31639, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, 143 pp.

  • Satake, K. (1987), Inversion of tsunami wave-forms for the estimation of a fault heterogeneity—method and numerical experiments. Journal of Physics of the Earth 35(3), 241–254.

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

  • Synolakis, C.E., and Okal, E.A. (2005), Case studies 1992–2002: Perspective on a decade of post-tsunami surveys. In Tsunamis, Adv. Nat. Technol. Hazards 23 (ed. Satake, K.) (Lavoisior Ed., Cachan, France 2005), pp. 1–29, doi:10.1007/1-4020-3331-1_1.

  • Tang, L., Titov, V.V., Bernard, E., Wei, Y., Chamberlin, C., Newman, J.C., Mofjeld, H., Arcas, D., Eble, M., Moore, C., Uslu, B., Pells, C., Spillane, M.C., Wright, L.M., and Gica, E. (2012), Direct energy estimation of the 2011 Japan tsunami using deep-ocean pressure measurements. J. Geophys. Res., 117, C08008, doi:10.1029/2011JC007635.

  • Tang, L., Titov, V.V., and Chamberlin, C.D. (2009), Development, testing, and application of site-specific tsunami inundation models for real-time forecasting. J. Geophys. Res. 114, C12025, doi:10.1029/2009JC005476.

  • Tang, L., Titov, V.V., Wei, Y., Mofjeld, H.O., Spillane, M., Arcas, D., Bernard, E.N., Chamberlin, C., Gica, E., and Newman, J. (2008), Tsunami forecast analysis for the May 2006 Tonga tsunami. J. Geophys. Res. 113, C12015, doi:10.1029/2008JC004922.

  • Tappin, D.R., Grilli, S.T., Harris, J.C., Geller, R.J., Masterlark, T., Kirby, J.T., Shi, F., Ma, G., Thingbaijam, K.K.S., and Mai, P.M. (2014), Did a submarine landslide contribute to the 2011 Tohoku tsunami? Marine Geology 357, 344–361.

  • Taylor, F.W., Briggs, R.W., Frohlich, C., Brown, A., Hornbach, M., Papabatu, A.K., Meltzner, A.J., and Billy, D. (2008), Rupture across arc segment and plate boundary in the 1 April 2007 Solomons earthquake. Natural Geoscience 1, 253–257.

  • Titov, V.V., Tsunami forecasting. In The Sea, vol. 15 (eds. Bernard, E. and Robinson, A.) (Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge 2009), pp. 367–396.

  • Titov, V.V., and González, F.I. (1997), Implementation and testing of the Method of Splitting Tsunami (MOST) model. NOAA Tech. Memo. ERL PMEL-112 (PB98-122773), NOAA/Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, Seattle, WA, 11 pp.

  • Titov, V.V., González, F.I., Bernard, E.N., Eble, M.C., Mofjeld, H.O., Newman, J.C., and Venturato, A.J. (2005), Real-time tsunami forecasting: challenges and solutions. Natural Hazards 35(1), 41–58.

  • Titov, V.V., Mofjeld, H.O., González, F.I. and Newman, J.C. (2001), Offshore forecasting of Alaska tsunamis in Hawaii. In Tsunami Research at the End of a Critical Decade (ed. Hebenstreit, G.T.) (Kluwer Academic Publishers 2001), pp. 75–90.

  • Titov, V.V., and Synolakis, C.E. (1998), Numerical modeling of tidal wave runup. J. Waterw. Port Coastal Ocean Eng. 124(4), 157–171.

  • Tomita, T., Arikawa, T., Tatsumi, D., Honda, K., Higashino, H., Watanabe, K., Nishimura, Y., Tanioka, T., Nakamura, Y., Tsuji, Y., Namegaya, Y., Murata, M., Woodward, S., Satake, K., Imamura, F., Fujima, K., Shigihara, Y., Matsutomi, H., Koshimura, S., Nishimura, Y., and Miyagi, Y. (2008), Joint report for tsunami field survey for the Solomon Islands earthquake of April 1, 2007. 200 pp. http://www.nda.ac.jp/cc/users/fujima/solomon-pdf.

  • Tsushima, H., Hino, R., Fujimoto, H., Tanioka, Y., and Imamura, F. (2009), Near-field tsunami forecasting from cabled ocean bottom pressure data. J. Geophys. Res. 114, B06309, doi:10.1029/2008JB005988.

  • Uslu, B., Titov, V.V., Eble, M., and Chamberlin, C. (2010), Tsunami hazard assessment for Guam. NOAA OAR Special Report, Tsunami Hazard Assessment Special Series, Vol. 1, 186 pp.

  • Wei, Y., Bernard, E., Tang, L., Weiss, R., Titov, V.V., Moore, C., Spillane, M., Hopkins, M., and Kânoğlu, U. (2008), Real-time experimental forecast of the Peruvian tsunami of August 2007 for U.S. coastlines. Geophys. Res. Lett. 35, L04609, doi:10.1029/2007GL032250.

  • Wei, Y., Chamberlin, C., Titov, V., Tang, L., and Bernard, E.N. (2013), Modeling of the 2011 Japan tsunami—Lessons for near-field forecast. Pure Appl. Geophys. 170(6–8), 1309–1331, doi:10.1007/s00024-012-0519-z.

  • Wei, Y., Cheung, K.F., Curtis, G.D., and McCreery, C.S. (2003), Inverse algorithm for tsunami forecasts. J. Waterw. Port Coastal Ocean Eng. 129(2), 60–69.

  • Wei, Y., Newman, A.V., Hayes, G.P., Titov, V.V., and Tang, L. (2014), Tsunami forecast by joint inversion of real-time tsunami waveforms and seismic or GPS data: application to the Tohoku 2011 tsunami. Pure and Appl. Geophys., 171(2), 3281–3305, doi:10.1007/s00024-014-0777-z.

  • Yagi, Y. (2007), The great earthquake in the Solomon Islands on April 2, 2007. http://www.geo.tsukuba.ac.jp/press_HP/yagi/EQ/20070401/.

  • Zhou, H., Moore, C., Wei, Y. and Titov, V.V. (2011), A nested-grid Boussinesq-type approach to modeling dispersive propagation and runup of landslide-generated tsunami. Nat. Hazards Earth Sys. Sci., 11(10), 2677–2697, doi:10.5194/nhess-11-2677-2011.

  • Zhou, H., Wei, Y., and Titov, V.V. (2012), Dispersive modeling of the 2009 Samoa tsunami. Geophys. Res. Lett. 39(16), L16603, doi:10.1029/2012GL053068.

Download references

Acknowledgments

The work reported in this publication was partially funded by the Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean (JISAO) under NOAA cooperative agreement no. NA17RJ1232, JISAO contribution number 1804, and PMEL contribution number 3510. The survey work was supported by the National Science Foundation through the NSF SGER-award CMMI-0646278 and UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission award IOC-4500034222 to H. Fritz. We thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. We are also grateful for Sandra Bigley for her thorough editing of this manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. NOAA Center for Tsunami Research, Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 7600 Sand Point Way NE, Seattle, WA, 98115, USA

    Yong Wei & Vasily V. Titov

  2. Joint Institute for the Study of Atmosphere and Ocean (JISAO), College of the Environment, University of Washington, 3737 Brooklyn Ave NE, Box 355672, Seattle, WA, 98105, USA

    Yong Wei & Chris Chamberlin

  3. School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 790 Atlantic Drive, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA

    Hermann M. Fritz

  4. OMC International, 13 Harper St, Abbotsford, VIC, 3067, Australia

    Burak Uslu

  5. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90089, USA

    Nikos Kalligeris

Authors
  1. Yong Wei
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Hermann M. Fritz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Vasily V. Titov
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Burak Uslu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Chris Chamberlin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Nikos Kalligeris
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yong Wei.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Wei, Y., Fritz, H.M., Titov, V.V. et al. Source Models and Near-Field Impact of the 1 April 2007 Solomon Islands Tsunami. Pure Appl. Geophys. 172, 657–682 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-014-1013-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-014-1013-6

Keywords

Search

Navigation