Characteristics of Tsunami Behaviors around a Circular Island

Abstract

Many islands are scattered in the Southern Sea of the Korean Peninsula and these islands are very vulnerable to unexpected tsunami attacks. In 1996, there was a tsunami warning around coastal areas including lots of islands located at the Southern part of the Korean Peninsula. More recently, another tsunami warning due to the Fukuoka earthquake occurred on March 20, 2005 was released along the Southern coastal communities of the Korean Peninsula. The earthquake had not generated a large tsunami but had given a huge social impact to Korea. In this study, numerical simulations of tsunami run-up around an island are presented to investigate behaviors of a tsunami. A numerical model based on the nonlinear shallow-water equations is employed to predict maximum run-up heights with a variable radial distance, the power of a radial distance and the shape of an island.