Tsunami Forecast Technology for Asteroid Impact Hazard Assessment

Abstract:

Over 75% of all historically documented tsunamis have been generated by earthquakes. As the result, all existing Tsunami Warning and Forecast systems focus almost exclusively on detecting, warning and forecasting earthquake-generated tsunamis.The sequence of devastating tsunamis across the globe over the past 10 years has significantly heightened awareness and preparation activities associated with these high-impact events. Since the catastrophic 2004 Sumatra tsunami, NOAA has invested significant efforts in modernizing the U.S. tsunami warning system. Recent developments in tsunami modeling capability, inundation forecasting, sensing networks, dissemination capability and local preparation and mitigation activities have gone a long way toward enhancing tsunami resilience within the United States.

The remaining quarter of the tsunami hazard problem is related to other mechanisms of tsunami generation, that may not have received adequate attention. Among those tsunami sources, the asteroid impact may be the most exotic, but possible one of the most devastating tsunami generation mechanisms. Tsunami forecast capabilities that have been developed for the tsunami warning system can be used to explore both, hazard assessment and the forecast of a tsunami generated by the asteroid impact. Existing tsunami flooding forecast technology allows for forecast for non-seismically generated tsunamis (asteroid impact, meteo-generated tsunamis, landslides, etc.), given an adequate data for the tsunami source parameters. Problems and opportunities for forecast of tsunamis from asteroid impact will be discussed. Preliminary results of impact-generated tsunami analysis for forecast and hazard assessment will be presented.