ORCID Profile
0000-0002-7190-5515
Current Organisation
University of Queensland
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Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2018
Publisher: Coastal Education and Research Foundation
Date: 28-04-2014
DOI: 10.2112/SI70-046.1
Publisher: Copernicus GmbH
Date: 09-2010
DOI: 10.5194/NHESS-10-1793-2010
Abstract: Abstract. Comprehensive analysis of 15 previously published regional databases incorporating more than 100 sources leads to a newly revised historical tsunami database for the northeastern (NE) region of the South China Sea (SCS) including Taiwan. The validity of each reported historical tsunami event listed in our database is assessed by comparing and contrasting the information and descriptions provided in the other databases. All earlier databases suffer from errors associated with inaccuracies in translation between different languages, calendars and location names. The new database contains 205 records of "events" reported to have occurred between AD 1076 and 2009. We identify and investigate 58 recorded tsunami events in the region. The validity of each event is based on the consistency and accuracy of the reports along with the relative number of in idual records for that event. Of the 58 events, 23 are regarded as "valid" (confirmed) events, three are "probable" events and six are "possible". Eighteen events are considered "doubtful" and eight events "invalid". The most destructive tsunami of the 23 valid events occurred in 1867 and affected Keelung, northern Taiwan, killing at least 100 people. Inaccuracies in the historical record aside, this new database highlights the occurrence and geographical extent of several large tsunamis in the NE SCS region and allows an elementary statistical analysis of annual recurrence intervals. Based on historical records from 1951–2009 the probability of a tsunami (from any source) affecting the region in any given year is relatively high (33.4%). However, the likelihood of a tsunami that has a wave height m, and/or causes fatalities and damage to infrastructure occurring in the region in any given year is low (1–2%). This work indicates the need for further research using coastal stratigraphy and inundation modeling to help validate some of the historical accounts of tsunamis as well as adequately evaluate the recurrence intervals of tsunamis along the now heavily developed coastlines of the region.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2021
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 2021
DOI: 10.1111/IAR.12417
Abstract: For tsunami science within Oceania, the vast Central and Western Pacific (CEWEP) is an anomalous region because of the scarcity of historical tsunami observations and the complete absence of dated palaeotsunami evidence. This paper therefore records the first dated high‐magnitude palaeotsunami event within the CEWEP region. A combination of both geological data and oral history is provided for a palaeotsunami that struck remote Makin island, northernmost of the Gilbert Islands in Kiribati, toward the end of the 16th century. A previously undocumented oral tradition of giant waves is well known to the people of Makin. Narration of this legend by the Wiin te Maneaba , traditional storyteller on Makin, provided important details supporting a tsunami hypothesis. The legend preserves credible information surrounding the giant‐wave origin of Rebua and Tokia , two prominent subaerial megaclasts of blade and block geometry that were transported 80–130 m shorewards from the reef‐edge source and deposited in sideways and inverted orientations. From available hydrodynamic flow transport equations, minimum flow velocities of 7.3–16.3 m s −1 were generated, depending on whether the reefblocks were rotated or lifted onto the reef platform. The youngest U‐Th age‐dates for fossil corals retrieved from the reefblocks give a maximum age for the palaeotsunami of circa AD 1576. Several far‐field Pacific Rim and regional possibilities exist for tsunamigenesis. These include subduction‐zone seismicity and catastrophic volcanic eruption, both of which have been linked to earlier (late 15th century) palaeotsunami events recorded elsewhere in the Pacific Islands. However, the available evidence here suggests that the ~AD 1576 Makin palaeotsunami was more likely to have been locally generated by tsunamigenic offshore submarine slope failure close to Makin's western reef, associated with the giant arcuate bight structure that characterizes the northern rim of Butaritari atoll.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2016
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 16-04-2016
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2018
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2018
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 12-2015
DOI: 10.1002/GEO2.13
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2013
Publisher: American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Date: 04-2019
DOI: 10.1029/2018JG004939
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2015
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2015
No related grants have been discovered for A Y Annie Lau.