Numerical evaluation of the coral damages by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami at Similan Islands, Thailand

Kawamata, Hideki; Goto, Kazuhisa; Imamura, Humihiko

doi:10.2208/kaigan.65.331

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

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“…Damage to tabular and branching corals by the tsunami is far more difficult to evaluate than that to the massive corals because of the corals' complex structures and their habitability. According to numerical modeling conducted by Kawamata et al (2009), the coral damage is generally proportional to the tsunami current velocity: approx. 50% coral damage was generated at Similan Island in Thailand by the 2004IOT when the maximum current velocity of the tsunami exceeded about 5 m/s.…”

Section: Tsunami Impact On Tabular and Branching Coralsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Coral damage is generally related to the place where the tsunami hydrodynamic forces strengthen (Goto and Imamura 2009;Kawamata et al 2009), although the relation is unclear. For example, coral damage by the 2004IOT at the islands in Thailand was high in straits among the islands and at the northern and southern headlands of the respective islands (PMBC 2005), where the tsunami hydrodynamic forces are stronger (Kawamata et al 2009). However, coral damage by the 2004IOT was generally low.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Large tsunamis reset growth of massive corals

Goto

Hongo

Watanabe

et al. 2019

Prog Earth Planet Sci

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Corals at Ishigaki Island, Japan, are characterized by their high species diversity. Not only are they struck by storm waves generated annually by typhoons, the corals, especially the massive ones, in the fringing reef were buffeted by huge tsunami waves with a run-up height of ca. 30 m in 1771 Meiwa tsunami and its predecessors at few hundredyear intervals. We present field survey and numerical results demonstrating that such near-field large tsunamis could have reset the growth of massive corals, a phenomenon which large typhoons have not caused. Our field survey revealed that the massive corals in the lagoon are not attached to the bedrock but are instead located on the sandy sea bottom. Therefore, those are movable of sufficiently large wave inundated in the lagoon. Our numerical results further showed that the maximum velocity of the tsunami at the reef edge, calculable as < 21.2 m/s at the study area, is still high in the shallow lagoon, perhaps generating sufficiently strong hydrodynamic force to devastate the massive corals in the shallow lagoon entirely, as well as some presumed damages on tabular and branching corals on the reef crest and reef slope. This numerical result is consistent with the observed fact that even a 9-m long Porites boulder (about 220 t) was cast ashore by the 1771 tsunami. The sizes of the presently living massive corals of Porites spp. are consistent with our hypothesis that they started to grow after the latest 1771 tsunami event. At the coral reefs of high tsunami-risk countries, severe destruction of corals by large tsunami waves should be considered for their growth history because, depending on the bathymetry, coral characteristics, and tsunami hydrodynamic features, tsunamis can radically alter coral habitats.

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Section: Tsunami Impact On Tabular and Branching Coralsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%