- Title
- Modelling the tsunami threat to Sydney Harbour (Port Jackson) with comparisons to historical events
- Creator
- Wilson, Olivia A.; Power, Hannah E.
- Relation
- Australasian Coasts and Ports 2017 . Australasian Coasts and Ports 2017: Working With Nature (Cairns, Qld 20-23 June, 2017) p. 1193-1200
- Publisher
- Engineers Australia
- Resource Type
- conference paper
- Date
- 2017
- Description
- Sydney Harbour is an iconic location with a dense population and low-lying development. On the east coast of Australia, facing the Pacific Ocean, it is exposed to several tsunamigenic trenches. There is geologic and historic evidence for tsunami affecting the NSW coastline and, although the threat is considered moderate, it is present. One of the most catalogued historic tsunami events to affect Sydney Harbour is the Chilean tsunami of May 1960, which caused significant damage. This study, presents a detailed assessment of the potential impact of earthquake-generated tsunami on Sydney Harbour using wave trains sourced from both the T2 and TsuDAT databases. From the T2 database, tsunami wave trains modelled include tsunami generated by earthquakes of magnitude 7.5, 8.0, 8.5 and 9.0 MW from the Puysegur and New Hebrides trenches as well as representations of historical events from Chile in 1960 and Japan in 2011. TsuDAT wave trains include those modelled from the Tonga, Chile, New Hebrides and Puysegur trenches and have ARI ranging from 200 to 36500. Using the hydrodynamic model ANUGA, results show that the events modelled have the potential to cause terrestrial inundation, high current speeds, hazardous depths and rapid changes in water level. Maximum current speeds vary in both range and magnitude according to location. Tsunami wave trains sourced from lower magnitude events and those with lower ARI result in lower maximum current speeds. As T2 source event increases in magnitude and TsuDAT ARI increases, maximum current speeds become higher. For T2 wave trains of ≤8.5MW, although current speeds may be a hazard, terrestrial inundation is minimal. As the T2 wave trains increase in source magnitude, inundation becomes apparent at Manly and in the low-lying embayments on the south side of the harbour. For the most impactful wave trains, TsuDAT wave trains which include ARI from 5000-36500, inundation is widespread and in some locations occurs above 10m elevation.
- Subject
- tsunami; tsunami modelling; Sydney, (NSW); ANUGA; coastal inundation
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1394962
- Identifier
- uon:33791
- Identifier
- ISBN:9781922107916
- Language
- eng
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