Tsunamis in the Mediterranean Sea 2000 B.C.–2000 A.D.

256 Pages·2000·5.98 MB·English

by  Sergey L. Soloviev, Olga N. Solovieva, Chan N. Go, Khen S. Kim, Nikolay A. Shchetnikov (auth.), Professor Jean Bonnin, Professor Boris W. Levin, Professor Stefano Tinti, Dr. Gerassimos A. Papadopoulos (eds.)

Tsunamis in the Mediterranean Sea 2000 B.C.- 2000 A.D.
Advances in Natural and Technological Hazards Research
VOLUME 13
EDITORIAL BOARD
Wang Ang-Sheng, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Atmospheric
Physics, Beijing, P.R. China
Gerhard Berz, Munchener Ruckversicherungs-Gesel/schaft, Munchen,
Germany
Oscar Gonzalez-Ferran, Departamento de Geologia y Geofisica, Facultad
de Ciencias Fisicas y Mathematicas, Universidad De Chile, Santiago, Chile
Terry Jeggle, Secretariat for the International Decade for Natural Disaster
Reduction, Palais des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland
Cinna Lomnitz, National University of Mexico, lnstituto de Geofisica,
Mexico, D. F. Mexico
Tad S. Murty, Baird & Associates, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Alvin H. Mushkatel, Office of Hazards Studies, Center for Public Affairs,
Arizona State University, Tempe, Az, USA
Joanne M. Nigg, Disaster Research Center, University of Delaware,
Newark, DE, USA
Alexei V. Nikolaev, Institute of Physics of the Earth, Russian Academy of
Sciences, Moscow, Russia
Paul M. Thompson, Flood Hazard Research Center, Middlesex University,
Enfield, UK
Donald A. Wilhite, International Drought Information Center, University of
Nebraska, Lincoln, NE, USA
The titles published in this series are listed at the end of this volume.
Tsunamis in the Mediterranean
Sea 2000 B.C.- 2000 A.D.
By
SERGEY L. SOLOVIEV and OLGA N. SOLOVIEVA
PP Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences,
Moscow, Russia
and
CHAN N. GO, KHEN S. KIM and NIKOLAY A. SHCHETNIKOV
Institute of Marine Geology and Geophysics,
Far Eastern Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences,
Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Russia
Translation:
Dr. Gil B. Pontecorvo,
Dr. Vasily I. Tropin
Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna, Moscow Region,
Russia (JINR, Dubna, Rf.)
Managing Editors:
Professor Jean Bonnin, Strasbourg, France
Professor Boris W. Levin, Moscow, Russia
Professor Stefano Tinti, Bologna, Italy
Dr. Gerassimos A. Papadopoulos, Athens, Greece
Technical Editor:
Olga I. Yakovenko, Moscow, Russia
Language Editor:
Mark Blazek, Palma de Mallorca, Spain
SPRINGER-SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V.
A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-90-481-5557-6 ISBN 978-94-015-9510-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-015-9510-0
Printed on acid-free paper
This is an extended and updated version and translation of the original work in Russian
"Tsunamis in the Mediterranean Sea -2000 B.C.- 1991 A.D.", Moscow, Russia.
Translated by Gil B. Pontecorvo and Vasily I. Tropin.
All Rights Reserved
© 2000 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 2000
Soflcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2000
No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and
retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner
TABLE OF CONTENTS
SERGEY SOLOVIEV ................................................................................................ vii
PREFACE .................................................................................................................. xiii
IN1RODUCTION ······································································································ XV
S1RUCTURE OF 1HE CATALOGUE .................................................................... xix
CHAPTER 1: THE MAIN TSUNAMIGENIC ZONES IN THE
MEDITERRANEAN SEA ......................................................................................... 1
CHAPTER 2: CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SOURCE OF TSUNAMI GENERATION
AND DESCRIPTION OF TSUNAMI. ANCIENT TSUNAMIS ............................... 16
CHAPTER 3: CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SOURCE OF TSUNAMI GENERATION
AND DESCRIPTION OF TSUNAMI. 1st- 16th CENTURIES ............................... 26
CHAPTER 4: CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SOURCE OF TSUNAMI GENERATION
AND DESCRIPTION OF TSUNAMI. 17th- 18th CENTURIES ............................. 46
CHAPTER 5: CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SOURCE OF TSUNAMI GENERATION
AND DESCRIPTION OF TSUNAMI. 19th CENTURY ........................................... 72
CHAPTER 6:. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SOURCE OF TSUNAMI GENERATION
AND DESCRIPTION OF TSUNAMI. 20th CENTURY ......................................... 123
CHAPTER 7: STUDY OF TSUNAMIS IN GREECE AND ITALY AT THE TURN OF
THE MILLENIUM .............................................................................................. 173
1. Recent developments in the tsunami research in Greece
a short review. Gerassimos A. Papadopoulos ................................................ 173
2. Recent progress of tsunami research in Italy. Stefano Tinti ............................... 179
APPENDIX 1: Main parameters of tsunamis in the Mediterranean Sea ................... 183
APPENDIX 2: List of tsunamigenic events in the Mediterranean Sea ..................... 192
APPENDIX 3: Equivalents of the International System Units to units
of other countries and to extra-system units .................................................. 206
REFERENCES .......................................................................................................... 207
INDEX OF GEOGRAPHIC NAMES ....................................................................... 219
v
SERGEY SOLOVIEV
APRIL 12, 1930- MARCH 9, 1994
Sergey Soloviev was a patriarch of tsunami study in the Soviet Union, a leader
of the national tsunami program, an indispensable chairman of all the annual
national tsunami conferences, a judge, a soul and a "pillar" of numerous
undertakings in this area. He monitored and supported practically all the
projects on the issues of the theory and practice of tsunami. The major
achievements of his life as a scientist included:
1. The Tsunami Catalogue for the Pacific Ocean. This two volume catalogue
written together with Go Chan Nam and published in the Soviet Union in 1974
and 1975 was translated into English and has proven to be the most complete
tsunami survey for the Pacific. Later this Catalogue has been continuously
reviewed and supplemented with the new data on tsunamis that occurred in the
past as well as on quite recent ones. In 1963, while visiting the Kuril Islands,
Sergey Soloviev was an eyewitness of the Urup tsunami and wrote a fascinating
book about this event. It is difficult to overestimate the impact of works like this
on the development of the Tsunami Warning System, minimising of tsunami
damage, on ·the analysis of the empirical relationship between underwater
earthquakes and tsunamis, and on theoretical models of tsunami generation.
2. Establishing the civll Tsunami Warning System for the Far East of the
USSR. As tsunamis are generated as a rule by underwater earthquakes, tsunami
forecasting is inseparable from the earthquake forecasting. For this reason
Sergey Soloviev devoted much effort to creating and improving the seismology
service. More than 10 seismological stations were established under his
leadership in Sakhalin, the Kurils, in the Amur and Primorye regions. He
proposed the calibration curves to estimate the earthquake parameters according
to regional data. Of great importance are also the Soloviev - Iida formula for
estimating tsunami intensity according to the magnitude of the underwater
earthquake and the earthquake and tsunami frequency occurrence curves for the
Kuril - Kamchatka area. The Tsunami Service headed by Soloviev was quite
efficient and never failed with tsunami warnings. The national Tsunami Service
is part of the International Pacific Tsunami Service and being a vice - president
of the International Tsunami Committee Sergey Soloviev greatly contributed in
vii
V111 SERGEY SOLOVIEV
organising real international co-operation in this field and regular data exchange
between the participant countries.
3. Organising of a special observatory on Shikotan Island for the
comprehensive earthquake and tsunami study. The observatory was
equipped with seismographs, deforrnographs and inclinometers as well as
hydrophysical bottom pressure stations to record tsunamis at the shelf of the
island. Soloviev was one of the pioneers of the hydrophysical method of
tsunami detection, which has proven to be the most promising and reliable
method for tsunami warning. After many years trying to register tsunami waves
in the open ocean he succeeded on February 23, 1980 (which in fact was the
second case of such a recording in the world). The Shikotan observatory also
made it possible to estimate the role of the T - phase (hydroacoustical
predictors of marine earthquakes) in the tsunami problem. For many scientists
and specialists - not only for the authors of these lines - the name of
Shikotan brings back the thrilling memories of expeditions where very many
field observations were made and new ideas verified. It is a pity that, because of
the hard times Russia has been going through, we risk to lose the invaluable
testing ground which was created with so much effort by Sergey Soloviev.
4. Marine seismological and long wave study in seismically active regions of
the World Ocean. Sergey Soloviev (together with Gaylord Miller and Bob
Harvey) was the initiator and the main organiser of two Soviet - American
Tsunami Expeditions (1975, 1978). These expeditions brought very valuable
results on the behaviour of long waves of the tsunami frequency band in the
open ocean. They also provided good experience on deep - sea bottom pressure
measurements. But most important of all, they established the co-operation and
life - long friendship between American and Russian scientists and promoted a
wide exchange of ideas and approaches.
The unique bottom seismological stations (OSB) of anchored and pop - up
types were created under the guidance of Sergey Soloviev in the eighties. The
original construction of the pop- up OBS was patented in Australia, Finland,
France, Japan and the U.S.A. At first, these OBS were used to collect
information on the peculiarities of the seismic regime in Baikal Lake area.
Numerous marine expeditions were sent to the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific
oceans and to the Aegean, Tyrrhenian, Japan and Laptev seas. Very important
results were obtained in areas of the Hellenic and Calabrian Arcs and in the
North Aegean trough. There were revealed: high micro - earthquake activity in
the Earth's crust in the rear parts of the Hellenic and Calabrian Arcs; an echelon
structure of the Benioff zone in the central part of the Hellenic Arc; an unusual
precursor of a strong earthquake manifesting itself as a transversal seismically
SERGEY SOLOVIEV ix
active zone in the Kasos Strait (E - SE to Crete Island); seismic activity of
submarine volcanoes in the Tyrrhenian Sea.
The Mediterranean continued to be in the focus of Soloviev's scientific
interest and research during his last years. Results of these investigations were
summarised in his two monographs and numerous papers on marine
seismology. This fundamental scientific knowledge based on the introduction of
original equipment allowed the Academician Soloviev to create a new scientific
branch in seismology- marine seismology.
5. Magnitude classification of earthquakes for the USSR. Soloviev found out
the relationships between the magnitude and the energy of seismic waves,
which made it possible to give a more objective classification of seismic events.
On this basis he constructed a map of seismicity and epicentres of major
earthquakes which revealed that the Kuril- Kamchatka area is the most
seismically active in the USSR (but not Central Asia or the Caucasus as it had
been thought before). The studies in natural disasters in the Far East in fact
became his main and life - long work. Using the historical records and
instrumental data he developed a scheme of seismo - zoning of Sakhalin which
became the basis of civil engineering for the island. The same scheme was
developed by Soloviev for the Priamurye and Primorye Regions.
The whole life of Sergey Soloviev was closely connected with three cities of the
former Soviet Union: Leningrad, Moscow and Yuzhno - Sakhalinsk. In
Leningrad he graduated with an outstanding record from the Department of
Physics of the Leningrad University (1953). He completed his post- graduate
course and prepared his Ph.D. thesis (1956) in Moscow at the Institute of
Geophysics (now the Institute of the Physics of Earth) under the guidance of
Prof. Savarensky, the leading Russian seismologist. For 1956-1961 he worked
at the Institute and on the Seismological Council of the USSR Academy of
Sciences. Here he edited and prepared for publication the fundamental
collective volume "Atlas of the Earthquakes in the USSR". This work enabled
Soloviev to grasp the importance of the regional seismological studies and to
get acquainted with the tsunami problem, which became the main scientific
topic of his life.
In 1961- 1977 Soloviev mainly worked in Yuzhno- Sakhalinsk in the
Sakhalin Complex Research Institute (now the Institute of Marine Geology and
Geophysics), which he headed from 1971 till 1977. Under his leadership this
institute became the largest research centre in the Far East of the USSR and the
centre of tsunami research where methods and techniques were worked out and
new equipment was elaborated. He motivated gifted young scientists who had
graduated from the top universities of Moscow, Leningrad, and Novosibirsk, to
work with him. There in effect was born the Soloviev school of young
X SERGEY SOLOVIEV
scientists. He managed to combine the efforts of experts in various fields
(mathematicians, physicists, oceanographers, geophysicists) throughout the
country to make a strong research team centred around the Sakhalin Institute. It
should be noted that as a director Soloviev contributed a lot to developing the
whole complex of scientific investigations of Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands and the
north- western Pacific. Thanks to him a few research vessels (the "Pegas", the
"Morskoy Geofisik" and the "Otvazhny") were equipped to begin intensive
studies of geological, geophysical and hydrophysical processes in the Pacific
Ocean and the Okhotsk and Japan seas. In particular, these studies resulted in
the discovery of the submarine prolongation of the Eastern Sakhalin mountain
ranges as well as in getting a clear picture of the oil and gas resources of the
Okhotsk Sea shelf. Soloviev worked closely on the development of methods
and technology of marine exploration. On the basis of one of the Departments
of the Sakhalin Complex Research Institute later there was established an
independent Research Institute of the Automation of Marine Studies.
Of great importance was Soloviev's activity in organising annual tsunami
meetings of Russian scientists and preparing the corresponding collections of
papers. Practically every year books and special volumes were published on the
tsunami problem, which greatly contributed to the unification and co-operation
of Russian tsunami experts. In recent years he actually set up a new scientific
journal- "The Tsunami Studies" and it is quite unfortunate that due to present
difficulties in Russia it has ceased to be published. Sergey Soloviev is author of
8 books and a large number of review articles on various aspects of tsunami
study and seismology which have in fact become textbooks on this
interdisciplinary issue. We are honoured to have been his co-authors in some of
the articles and to have experienced at first hand his working style, his
accuracy and scrupulousness in experimental data processing.
After 1977 Soloviev again worked in Moscow (Seismological Council of
the USSR Academy of Sciences, Seismology Department of the P. P. Shirshov
Institute of Oceanology RAS) while at the same time remaining head of the
national tsunami program. In that period he concentrated his efforts on the
problem of marine seismology, taking part in some sea expeditions involved in
the study of seismic and tsunami risks in the Mediterranean. Quite recently he
completed his tsunami catalogue for the Mediterranean which is ready for
publication.
Sergey Soloviev devoted much effort and energy to organising international
co-operation in the tsunami problem. This included organising several
international expeditions on tsunamis and marine seismology, and establishing
co-operation and information exchanges between the national tsunami warning
centres. In 1971 he was re-elected chairman of the IUGG Tsunami Commission
and remained in office until 1979. Soloviev contributed a lot to developing and
strengthening direct contacts between the research efforts of various countries