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A HUGE SAND DOME FORMED BY THE 1854 EARTHQUAKE TSUNAMI IN SURUGA BAY, CENTRAL JAPAN

Daisuke Sugawara, Koji Minoura, Fumihiko Imamura, Tomoyuki Takahashi and Nobuo Shuto

Paper No.: 462

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Vol.: 42

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No.: 4

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December, 2005

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pp. 147-158

Abstract

 

The 1854 Ansei-Tokai earthquake brought massive destruction to Suruga Bay, central Japan. The earthquake triggered a large-scale tsunami, which surged over the Pacific coast of Japan. Waves exceeding 13.2 m in height attacked Iruma, southeastern coast of Suruga Bay, and provoked peculiar types of tsunami sedimentation. On the coast of Iruma, a huge mound of shoreface sand, reaching more than 11.2 m above sea level, appeared after the tsunami run-up. We performed a historical and sedimentological survey to clarify the origin of the mound. Result of a field excavation and submarine investigation suggests that the sand came from the seafloor with a water depth of 20 to 30 m, and historical data illustrates a dramatic change of the landform by the tsunami run-up. Numerical examination of the tsunami implies that the coastal topography played an important role in excitation of the tsunami, and it induced the characteristic tsunami sedimentation.
Keywords: Earthquake Tsunami, Tsunami Deposit, Sand Dome, Coastal Topography

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