COASTAL HAZARDS @ VIRGINIA TECH
Collaborative research: Tsunami and tropical storm sediment dynamics and products
Funded by the National Science Foundation (Grant No. EAR-1630099)
Tsunamis and tropical cyclones pose a serious hazard to coastal communities. Quantifying this hazard is challenging in part because instrumental and historical datasets are too short to capture the extreme range of flood conditions possible at any particular location. Deposits from tsunamis and tropical cyclones, preserved within coastal sediments, provide a means to extend these records. However, there is significant uncertainty related to the movement of sediment during tsunamis and tropical cyclones, which hinders the interpretation of these event deposits.
To gain insight in sediment transport during tsunamis and tropical cyclones, computational modeling, informed by the properties of modern and paleo sedimentary deposits, will be performed. One assumption is that similarities exist in flow and transport processes between tsunamis and tropical cyclones; therefore, much can be learned from studying the two phenomena in tandem. Another assumption is that natural patterns exist in tsunami and tropical cyclone deposits such that correlations between deposit properties and their causative event can be obtained with advanced statistical methods coupled to computational modeling. The study will advance understanding of sediment transport during tsunamis and tropical cyclones and will improve the capability to predict the impact of future tsunami and tropical cyclones with more certainty, resulting in more resilient coastal planning, potentially saving lives and protecting livelihoods.
To gain insight in sediment transport during tsunamis and tropical cyclones, computational modeling, informed by the properties of modern and paleo sedimentary deposits, will be performed. One assumption is that similarities exist in flow and transport processes between tsunamis and tropical cyclones; therefore, much can be learned from studying the two phenomena in tandem. Another assumption is that natural patterns exist in tsunami and tropical cyclone deposits such that correlations between deposit properties and their causative event can be obtained with advanced statistical methods coupled to computational modeling. The study will advance understanding of sediment transport during tsunamis and tropical cyclones and will improve the capability to predict the impact of future tsunami and tropical cyclones with more certainty, resulting in more resilient coastal planning, potentially saving lives and protecting livelihoods.
Acknowledgements & Credits: This material is based upon work supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funding sponsor. Background photo courtesy of Sadatsugu Tomizawa (Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).
© 2016 Jennifer L. Irish & Robert Weiss. All Rights Reserved.