Authors / CoAuthors
Bathgate, J.B.
Abstract
In response to the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004 the Australian Government funded the creation of the Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre (JATWC) to mitigate the tsunami hazard to Australia. Within this system Geoscience Australia is responsible for locating and estimating the magnitude of earthquakes in the Australian region that have the potential to generate a tsunami. On 2 April 2007 a large earthquake (M 8.1) occurred in the Solomon Islands that generated a tsunami and caused severe damage and loss of life in the local area. Geoscience Australia detected the earthquake and issued an earthquake notification which resulted in the JATWC releasing a Tsunami Bulletin for the first time. The tsunami that reached the east Australian coast was small but proved that the systems put in place were effective for warning the Australian public of an approaching tsunami. Geoscience Australia has been developing tools to better characterise the earthquake source. Understanding the type of earthquake and accurately mapping the rupture improves the likelihood of describing the tsunami at the coast. As well as routinely estimating the magnitude Geoscience Australia complements this with estimations of the earthquake fault parameters (W-phase and Centroid Moment Tensor). Modelling of the rupture zone and the tsunami can then follow. This sequence of calculations has been carried out for the Solomon Islands earthquake and explains the tsunami amplitude that was observed on the coast. The modelling shows the earthquake ruptured for 200 km to the northwest with a maximum slip of 5.2 m.
Product Type
nonGeographicDataset
eCat Id
68824
Contact for the resource
Custodian
Point of contact
Cnr Jerrabomberra Ave and Hindmarsh Dr GPO Box 378
Canberra
ACT
2601
Australia
Keywords
-
- External Publication
- ( Theme )
-
- earthquakes
- ( Theme )
-
- tsunamis
- Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)
-
- Earth Sciences
-
- Published_Internal
Publication Date
2009-01-01T00:00:00
Creation Date
Security Constraints
Legal Constraints
Status
Purpose
Maintenance Information
unknown
Topic Category
geoscientificInformation
Series Information
Lineage
Unknown
Parent Information
Extents
Reference System
Spatial Resolution
Service Information
Associations
Downloads and Links
Source Information
Source data not available.