In-situ Observation of Tsunami from the Off Kuril Islands Earthquake of 15 November 2006

Abstract

Tsunami from the mega-thrust earthquake off the Kuril Islands on 15 November 2006 was observed by the offshore long-term observatory off Hokkaido, Japan. About one hour later, a series of the tsunami signal was observed by three bottom pressure sensors. Tsunami amplitudes observed offshore were approximately 5 cm, while those observed at the coast were a few tens of centimeters. An acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) at the ocean-bottom, however, could not record any current anomaly by the tsunami propagation. In the present study, the tsunami computation has been also done, and its results have been compared to the observations.