FY 1998

Implementation and testing of the Method of Splitting Tsunami (MOST) model

Titov, V., and F.I. González

NOAA Tech. Memo. ERL PMEL-112, NTIS: PB98-122773, NOAA/Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, Seattle, WA, 11 pp (1997)

A suite of numerical simulation codes, known collectively as the MOST (Method of Splitting Tsunami) model, has been implemented and tested. The MOST model is capable of simulating three processes of tsunami evolution, i.e., generation by an earthquake, transoceanic propagation, and inundation of dry land. Generation and propagation capabilities were tested against deep ocean bottom pressure recorder (BPR) data collected by PMEL during the 1996 Andreanov tsunami; inundation computations were compared with field measurements of maximum runup on Okushiri Island collected shortly after the 1993 Hokkaido-Nansei-Oki tsunami. Computed estimates agreed well with observations, indicating that the MOST model will be a valuable tool in the development of tsunami forecasting and hazard mitigation tools.