Pacific Region Ocean Sciences Research Activities

In the first part, you could find the basic physics of tsunamis, big historical tsunami events, the local tsunami source - Cascadia subduction zone - in coastal British Columbia and some useful links to additional  information on Tsunamis including how to protect yourself from tsunamis.

The second part introduces the tsunami model, and displays the animations of modelling results.

People who are working on tsunami research at IOS/PGC and other organizations:

Recent Publications

Laverov, N.P., L.I. Lobkovsky, B.W. Levin, A.B. Rabinovich, E.A. Kulikov, I.V. Fine and R.E. Thomson. 2009. The Kuril Tsunamis of November 15, 2006, and January 13, 2007: Two Trans-Pacific Events. Doklady Earth Sciences. 426(4):658–664. 

Stephenson, F.E. and Rabinovich, A.B. 2009. Tsunamis on the Pacific Coast of Canada recorded in 1994–2007. Pure and Applied Geophysics. 166(1-2):177-210.

Lobkovsky, L.I., A.B. Rabinovich, E.A. Kulikov, A.I. Ivashchenko, I.V. Fine, R.E. Thomson, T.N. Ivelskaya and G.S. Bogdanov. 2009. The Kuril Earthquakes and Tsunamis of November 15, 2006, and January 13, 2007: Observations, Analysis, and Numerical Modeling. Oceanology. 49(2):166–181.

Fine, I., J.Y. Cherniawsky, A.B. Rabinovich and F. Stephenson. 2009. Numerical Modeling and Observations of Tsunami Waves in Alberni Inlet and Barkley Sound, British Columbia. Pure Appl. Geophys. 165:1019-2044. doi:10.1007/s00024-008-0414-9.

Candella, R. N., Rabinovich, A. B. and R. E. Thomson. 2008. The 2004 Sumatra tsunami as recorded on the Atlantic coast of South America. Advances in Geosciences. 14:117–128.

Lobkovskii, L.I., E.A. Kulikov, A.B. Rabinovich, A.I. Ivashchenko, I.V. Fain, T.N. Ivel’skaya.  2008. Earthquakes and Tsunamis (November 15, 2006, and January 13, 2007) in the Central Kuril Islands Region: A Justified Prediction. Doklady Earth Sciences. 419(2):320–324. 

Rabinovich, Alexander B., Richard E. Thomson, Vasily V. Titov, Fred E. Stephenson and Garry C. Rogers. 2008. Locally Generated Tsunamis Recorded on the Coast of British Columbia. Atmosphere-Ocean. 46(3):343–360. doi:10.3137/ao.460304.

Rabinovich, A. B., Lobkovsky, L. I., Fine, I. V., Thomson,R. E., Ivelskaya, T. N. and E. A. Kulikov. 2008. Near-source observations and modeling of the Kuril Islands tsunamis of 15 November 2006 and 13 January 2007. Advances in Geosciences. 14:105–116.

Vilibic, I., S. Monserrat, A. Rabinovich and H. Mihanovic. 2008. Numerical Modelling of the Destructive Meteotsunami of 15 June, 2006 on the Coast of the Balearic Islands. Pure and Applied Geophysics .165:2169–2195

Bornhold, B. D.,  Harper, J.R., McLaren, D. and R. E. Thomson. 2007. Destruction of the Pre-contact First Nations Village of Kwalate by a Rock Avalanche-generated tsunami. Atmosphere-Ocean. 45(2):123-128. doi:10.3137/ao.450205.

Cherniawsky, J.Y., Titov, V.V., Wang, K. and J.-Y. Li. 2007. Numerical simulations of tsunami waves and currents for southern Vancouver Island from a Cascadia megathrust earthquake. Pure and Applied Geophysics. 164(2-3):465-492.

J. Gower.  2007. The 26 December 2004 tsunami measured by satellite altimetry. International Journal of Remote Sensing. 28(13):2897-2913. doi:10.1080/01431160601094484.

Rabinovich, A.B. and R.E. Thomson. 2007. The 26 December 2004 Sumatra tsunami: Analysis of tide gauge data from the World Ocean. Part 1. Indian Ocean and South Africa. Pure Appl. Geophys. 164(2-3):261-308.

Thomson, R. E., A. B. Rabinovich and M. V. Krassovski. 2007. Double jeopardy: Concurrent arrival of the 2004 Sumatra tsunami and storm-generated waves on the Atlantic coast of the United States and Canada. Geophys. Res. Lett. 34:L15607. doi:10.1029/2007GL030685.

Gower, J. and F. González. 2006. U.S. Warning System Detected the Sumatra Tsunami. Eos Trans. AGU. 87(10):105:108. 

Joseph, A., Odametey, J.T., Nkebi, E.K., Pereira, A., Prabhudesai, R.G., Mehra1, P., Rabinovich, A.B., Kumar, V. , Prabhudesai, S. and P Woodworth. 2006. The 26 December 2004 Sumatra tsunami recorded on the coast of West Africa. African Journal of Marine Science. 28(3&4):705–712.

Monserrat, S.,  Vilibić, I. and A.B. Rabinovich. 2006. Meteotsunamis: atmospherically induced destructive ocean waves in the tsunami frequency band. Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci. 6:1035-1051.

Rabinovich, A.B., Stephenson, F.E. and R.E. Thomson. 2006. The California Tsunami of 15 June 2005 along the Coast of North America. Atmosphere-Ocean. 44(4):415–427.

Rabinovich, A.B., Thomson, R.E. and F.E. Stephenson. 2006. The Sumatra tsunami of 26 December 2004 as observed in the North Pacific and North Atlantic oceans. Surv. Geophys. 27:647–677. doi:10.1007/s10712-006-9000-9.

Fine, I. V., A.B. Rabinovich, B. D. Bornhold, R.E. Thomson and E.A. Kulikov. 2005. The Grand Banks landslide-generated tsunami of November 18, 1929: Preliminary analysis and numerical modeling. Marine Geology. 215:45-57.

Fine, I.V., Rabinovich, A. B. and R.E. Thomson. 2005.The dual source region for the 2004 Sumatra tsunami. Geophysical Research Letters. 32. L16602. doi:10.102g/2005GL023521.

Gower, J. F. 2005. Jason 1 detects December 26, 2004 tsunami. Eos. 86(4):37-38.

Kulikov, E.A.,  Medvedev, P.P. and S. Lappo. 2005. Satellite Recording of the Indian Ocean Tsunami on December 26, 2004. Doklady Earth Sciences. 401A(3): 444–448. 

Kulikov, E. A., Rabinovich, A. B. and R.E. Thomson. 2005. Estimation of Tsunami Risk for the Coasts of Peru and Northern Chile. Natural Hazards. 35:185–209.  

Kulikov, E. A., Rabinovich, A.B. and R.E. Thomson. 2005. On Long-Term Tsunami Forecasting. Oceanology. 45(4):488–499. (Translated from Okeanologiya. 45(4):518–530).

Titov, V., Rabinovich, A. B., Mofjeld, H.O., R.E. Thomson and Frank I. González. 2005. The Global Reach of the 26 December 2004 Sumatra Tsunami. Science. 309. 2045-2048. 

Rabinovich, A.B. and F.E. Stephenson. 2004. Longwave Measurements for the Coast of British Columbia and Improvements to the Tsunami Warning Capability. Natural Hazards. 32:313–343.

Liu, P. L.-F., Monserrat, S., Marcos, M. and A.B. Rabinovich. 2003. Coupling between two inlets: Observation and modeling. J. Geophys. Res. 108(C3):3069. doi:10.1029/2002JC001478. (Correction)

Fine, I.V., Rabinovich, A.B., Thomson, R.E. and E.A. Kulikov. 2003. Numerical Modeling of Tsunami Generation by Submarine and Subaerial Landslides. In:  Ahmet C. et al. [Eds.].  NATO Science Series, Underwater Ground Failures On Tsunami Generation, Modeling, Risk and Mitigation. Kluwer. 69-88.

Rabinovich, A.B., Thomson, R.E., Kulikov, E.A., Bornhold, B.D., and I.V. Fine. 1999. The landslide-generated tsunami of November 3, 1994 in Skagway Harbor, Alaska: A case study. Geophysical Research Letters. 26(19):3009-3012.

Monserrat, S., Rabinovich, A.B.and B. Casas. 1998. On the reconstruction of the transfer function for atmospherically generated seiches. Geophysical Research Letters. 25(12):2197-2200.

Rabinovich A.B. and S. Monserrat. 1998. Generation of meteorological tsunamis (large amplitude seiches) near the Balearic and Kuril Islands. Natural Hazards. 18(1):27-55.

Rabinovich, A. B. 1997. Spectral analysis of tsunami waves: Separation of source and topography effects. J. Geophys. Res. 102(C6):12,663–12,676. 

Kulikov, E.A., A.B. Rabinovich, R.E. Thomson and B.B. Bornhold. 1996. The landslide tsunami of November 3, 1994, Skagway Harbor, Alaska. J. Geophys. Res. 101:6609-6615. 

Rabinovich, A.B. and S. Monserrat. 1996. Meteorological tsunamis near the Balearic and Kuril Islands :Descriptive and statistical analysis. Natural Hazards. 13(1):55-90.

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