Regional tsunami hazard assessment for the communities of Kasaan, Klawock, Metlakatla, Pelican, Point Baker, and Port Protection in Southeast Alaska

Description

We assess potential tsunami hazards for six communities in Southeast Alaska: Kasaan, Klawock, Metlakatla, Pelican, Point Baker, and Port Protection. These communities have no high-resolution bathymetry or topography; therefore we conduct tsunami hazard assessments for these areas at the regional scale. The regional approach is a suitable, cost- effective approximation and replacement for high-resolution tsunami inundation maps. The primary tsunami hazard considered for these communities originates from tsunamigenic earthquakes along the Alaska-Aleutian subduction zone across the Gulf of Alaska. We numerically model tsunami waves generated by four different megathrust earthquakes and develop approximate tsunami hazard maps for the six communities. The hypothetical tsunami scenarios that we examined include variations of an extended 1964 rupture, megathrust earthquakes in the Prince William Sound and Alaska Peninsula regions, and a Cascadia megathrust earthquake. We do not include impacts of subaerial or submarine landslide tsunami sources, as that is beyond the scope of this study. The maximum runup heights from tectonically-generated tsunamis are 1.4 m (4.6 ft) in Kasaan, 4 m (13 ft) in Klawock, 1 m (3.3 ft) in Metlakatla, 5 m (16 ft) in Pelican, 1.3 m (4.3 ft) in Point Baker, and 2.6 m (8.5 ft) in Port Protection. Results presented here are intended to provide guidance to local emergency management agencies in initial tsunami inundation assessment, evacuation planning, and public education for mitigation of future tsunami hazards. The complete report and digital data are available from the DGGS website: http://doi.org/10.14509/30423.

Resources

Name Format Description Link
0 CSDGM IMPORT ERROR: No digtinfo/formcont http://doi.org/10.14509/30423
0 http://doi.org/10.14509/30423
0 http://doi.org/10.14509/30196
0 http://doi.org/10.14509/29404
0 http://doi.org/10.14509/30029
0 http://doi.org/10.14509/29741
0 http://doi.org/10.14509/26671
0 http://doi.org/10.14509/29126
0 http://doi.org/10.14509/30423
0 http://doi.org/10.14509/29577

Tags

  • topography
  • coastal and river
  • engineering
  • inundation
  • tectonics
  • kasaan
  • modeling
  • prince of wales island
  • faults
  • geologic
  • environmental
  • engineering geology
  • geology
  • pelican
  • lisianski inlet
  • coastal
  • subsidence
  • labouchere bay
  • point baker
  • annette island
  • faulting
  • clarence strait
  • earthquake
  • metlakatla
  • flood
  • fault displacement
  • southeast alaska
  • geotechnical
  • neotectonics
  • geological process
  • active fault
  • hazards
  • chichagof island
  • emergency preparedness
  • port protection
  • surface
  • klawock
  • tsunami
  • geologic hazards
  • sumner strait

Topics

  • Local Government

Categories