Reconstruction of Tsunami Inland Propagation on December 26, 2004 in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, through Field Investigations

Abstract

This paper presents the results from an extensive field data collection effort following the December 26, 2004 earthquake and tsunami in Banda Aceh, Sumatra. The data were collected under the auspices of TSUNARISQUE, a joint French-Indonesian program dedicated to tsunami research and hazard mitigation, which has been active since before the 2004 event. In total, data from three months of field investigations are presented, which detail important aspects of the tsunami inundation dynamics in Banda Aceh. These include measurements of runup, tsunami wave heights, flow depths, flow directions, event chronology and building damage patterns. The result is a series of detailed inundation maps of the northern and western coasts of Sumatra including Banda Aceh and Lhok Nga.Among the more important findings, we obtained consistent accounts that approximately ten separate waves affected the region after the earthquake; this indicates a high-frequency component of the tsunami wave energy in the extreme near-field. The largest tsunami wave heights were on the order of 35 m with a maximum runup height of 51 m. This value is the highest runup value measured in human history for a seismically generated tsunami. In addition, our field investigations show a significant discontinuity in the tsunami wave heights and flow depths along a line approximately 3 km inland, which the authors interpret to be the location of the collapse of the main tsunami bore caused by sudden energy dissipation. The propagating bore looked like a breaking wave from the landward side although it has distinct characteristics. Patterns of building damage are related to the location of the propagating bore with overall less damage to buildings beyond the line where the bore collapsed. This data set was built to be of use to the tsunami community for the purposes of calibrating and improving existing tsunami inundation models, especially in the analysis of extreme near-field events.

Inventory of uncertainties associated with the process of tsunami damage assessment on buildings (SCHEMA FP6 EC co-funded project)

“…1) and Tsuji et al (2005;triangles in Fig. 1) are quite consistent, values from Tsunarisque (Lavigne et al, 2009; represented by stars in Fig. 1) are significantly higher, in some locations even double the other measurements.…”

“…For the purposes of the SCHEMA project, and in particular for the development of new damage functions (Valencia et al, 2011), three data bases of water height measurements collected in Banda Aceh (Indonesia) after the Boxing Day 2004 event by three different teams have been analysed and compared in detail. Table 1 resumes the characteristics of the three analyzed field surveys conducted by a Japanese team , the International Tsunami Survey Team (Borrero, 2005a, b) and a French & Indonesian team (Lavigne et al, 2009) in the beginning of 2005. The data are available on the Internet and/or in scientific publications.…”

“…In our case, we chose to compare the flow depths. To perform the necessary conversions, we made use of the 18m gridsize DTM of Banda Aceh created in the framework of the TSUNARISQUE program (Lavigne et al, 2009) and modified by the CEA/DASE (Commissariatà l'Energie Atomique - Loevenbruck et al, 2007).…”

Critical Factors for Run-up and Impact of the Tohoku Earthquake Tsunami

“…For irregular coastlines, edge waves will be scattered and reflected and, where these different phases (trapped and nontrapped) interfere constructively and at antipodes, large nearshore tsunami amplitudes can be realized. Lavigne et al [16,17] report that marine surveys after the 2004 tsunami refer that uniformity of tsunami runup indicates that there is limited co-seismic landslide presence involved. They conclude that local geomorphological configurations of the coastline and/or the seafloor were responsible for exceptional runup heights along the west coast of the Banda Aceh district (Indonesia).…”

Performance of coastal sea-defense infrastructure at El Jadida (Morocco) against tsunami threat: lessons learned from the Japanese 11 March 2011 tsunami

“…However, the experience of the 2004 Sumatra tsunami event highlighted the fact that infrequency does not mean total absence of threat of occurrence of devastating tsunami events (Lavigne et al, 2009). This raises the following question: should we wait for a devastating tsunami event in the region before mobilizing for the implementation of an end-to-end TWS?…”