Propagation characteristics of historical tsunamis that attacked the east coast of Korea

In this study, a numerical modeling system based on the dispersion-correction finite difference scheme equipped with a grid-nesting scheme is constructed. The model is applied to simulate the propagation of three historical tsunami events that attacked the east coast of Korea. The calculated free-surface displacements for the cases of the 1983 Akita and the 1993 Okushiri tsunamis are compared with the observations at four tidal stations along the east coast of Korea. The comparison shows that the results agree well with the observations. The analyses of the simulated results show that underwater topography, such as submerged rises and ridges, plays an important role in the propagation of tsunamis in this region.This research was supported by a grant (No. NEMA-06-NH-06) from the Natural Hazard Mitigation Research Group, National Emergency Management Agency of Korea