Tsunami Visualizations
Compiled by John McDaris at Carleton College.
This page has links to several visualizations of recent and historical tsunami episodes. We have also collected other tsumani materials that go beyond visualizations.
Indian Ocean Tsunami - 26 December, 2004
This
Quicktime animation (more info) , by Dr. Steven Ward at the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at the University of California - Santa Cruz, shows the tsunami's progress across the Indian Ocean. It also shows some water level graphs and run-up heights throughout the region.
This
visualization (more info) from
Kenji Satake at the
Active Fault Research Center in Tsukuba, Japan, highlights the crests and troughs of the tsunami waves as they travel across the Indian Ocean and refract around islands and interfere with each other. The red color means that the water surface is higher than normal, while the blue means lower.
This Quicktime visualization from NOAA concentrates on the wave propagation in the
Indian Ocean (more info) .
This NOAA visualization tracks the tsunami waves until they reach the
East African coast of Somalia.
NOAA has rerun the tsunami model used to generate the two previous visualizations to generate a
world-wide picture (more info) of the wave's propagation. This is a very large file.
This
special report (more info) from The Guardian uses imagery from #2 above and uses a stepwise progression to show when waves reached particular points throughout the Indian Ocean area. This animation helps pull together the phenomenon, the timing, and the consequences for a more general audience.
Before and After Tsunami Photos (more info) : This series of 14 sets of before and after photos was taken via satellite of the tsunami-ravaged city of Banda Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia. The images are very dramatic and the ability to see before and after in the same scale and field of view in rapid succession is extremely powerful.
Before and After Photos of Tsunami Destruction of Aceh Province in Sumatra: This pair of natural-color Landsat 7 images show the destruction caused by 50 foot waves that traveled up to a mile inland. These dramatic images poignantly convey the complete devastation left in the wake of the tsunami.
Other Historical Tsunamis
How Do Tsunamis Differ from Other Water Waves? (more info) : This page from a site from the
University of Washington includes a Quicktime movie that shows the propagation of the earthquake-generated
1960 Chilean tsunami across the Pacific Ocean.
Papua New Guinea, 1998 (more info) : This is a USGS visualization of the 1998 tsunami that struck Papua New Guinea. There are also
medium-(4.7 Mb) and
high-resolution (16.8 Mb) versions.
1700 Cascadia Tsunami (7Mb): This is a model of the wave propagation from the 1700 Cascadia Tsunami. Information about the visualization and its creators is available at
http://www.pgc.nrcan.gc.ca/press/index_e.php
Peru, 2001: This is a medium-resolution (4.3 Mb) animation from the USGS of the June 23, 2001 tsunami that struck Peru and the west coast of South America. There is also a
high-resolution version (24 Mb).
Hypothetical Tsunami Visualizations
Pacific Northwest, North America: This is a low-resolution (2.2 Mb) Quicktime visualization of a Stochastic Model for Potential Tsunamis in the Pacific Northwest created by the
USGS. There is also a
high-resolution version (11.3 Mb).
Tsunami Generation (more info) : This animation by Prof. Miho Aoki from the University of Alaska Fairbanks Art Department provides a very nice look at how a tsunami can be generated by a subduction zone earthquake. The visualization is large, so be prepared for lengthy download.
Coastal Inundation (more info) : This animation by Prof. Miho Aoki from the University of Alaska Fairbanks Art Department shows how a coastal town can be inundated by a tsunami.
