Authors / CoAuthors
Abstract
In November, 2018 a workshop of experts sponsored by UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission was convened in Wellington, New Zealand. The meeting was organized by Working Group (WG) 1 of the Pacific Tsunami Warning System (PTWS). The meeting brought together fourteen experts from various disciplines and four different countries (New Zealand, Australia, USA and French Polynesia) and four observers from Pacific Island countries (Tonga, Fiji), with the objective of understanding the tsunami hazard posed by the Tonga-Kermadec trench, evaluating the current state of seismic and tsunami instrumentation in the region and assessing the level of readiness of at-risk populations. The meeting took place in the “Beehive” Annex to New Zealand’s Parliament building nearby the offices of the Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management. The meeting was co-chaired by Mrs. Sarah-Jayne McCurrach (New Zealand) from the Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management and Dr. Diego Arcas (USA) from NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory. As one of the meeting objectives, the experts used their state-of-the-science knowledge of local tectonics to identify some of the potential, worst-case seismic scenarios for the Tonga-Kermadec trench. These scenarios were ranked as low, medium and high probability events by the same experts. While other non-seismic tsunamigenic scenarios were acknowledged, the level of uncertainty in the region, associated with the lack of instrumentation prevented the experts from identifying worse case scenarios for non-seismic sources. The present report synthesizes some of the findings of, and presents the seismic sources identified by the experts to pose the largest tsunami risk to nearby coastlines. In addition, workshop participants discussed existing gaps in scientific knowledge of local tectonics, including seismic and tsunami instrumentation of the trench and current level of tsunami readiness for at-risk populations, including real-time tsunami warnings. The results and conclusions of the meeting are presented in this report and some recommendations are summarized in the final section.
Product Type
document
eCat Id
128389
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Cnr Jerrabomberra Ave and Hindmarsh Dr GPO Box 378
Canberra
ACT
2601
Australia
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Keywords
- theme.ANZRC Fields of Research.rdf
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- EARTH SCIENCES
- GCMD Keywords
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- Earth Science | Human Dimensions | Natural Hazards | TsunamisEarth Science | Oceans | Ocean Waves | TsunamisEarth Science | Solid Earth | Tectonics | Earthquakes
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- Earth Science
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- Human Dimensions
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- Natural Hazards
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- Tsunamis
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- Earth Science
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- Oceans
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- Ocean Waves
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- Tsunamis
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- Earth Science
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- Solid Earth
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- Tectonics
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- Earthquakes
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- Tonga
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- Hazard Response
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- Published_External
Publication Date
2022-05-02T08:06:22
Creation Date
2019-04-18T01:02:00
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Status
completed
Purpose
IOC report
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notPlanned
Topic Category
geoscientificInformation
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Lineage
This IOC report was developed by a number of authors at the workshop, including Gareth Davies from GA.
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Extents
[-44, -9, 112, 154]
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Spatial Resolution
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