{"id":61161,"date":"2017-06-05T16:52:11","date_gmt":"2017-06-06T02:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=61161"},"modified":"2020-05-08T12:36:57","modified_gmt":"2020-05-08T22:36:57","slug":"1586-sanriku-japan-tsunami","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2017\/06\/05\/1586-sanriku-japan-tsunami\/","title":{"rendered":"New evidence reveals source of 1586 Sanriku, Japan tsunami"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
\"Overhead
Makauwahi sinkhole. Credits: R. Butler (L), Gerard Fryer (R), GoogleMaps.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A team of researchers, led by Rhett Butler<\/strong><\/a>, geophysicist at the University of Hawaiʻi<\/span> at M\u0101noa, re-examined historical evidence around the Pacific and discovered the origin of the tsunami that hit Sanriku, Japan in 1586—a mega-earthquake from the Aleutian Islands that broadly impacted the north Pacific. Until now, this was considered an orphan tsunami, a historical tsunami without an obvious local earthquake source, likely originating far away.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Coral fragments analyzed in this study (3–5 cm in longest dimension). Credit: Butler, et al.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Butler and scientists from the National Tropical Botanical Garden<\/a>, 糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> M\u0101noa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology<\/a>, and NOAA<\/abbr>’s Pacific Tsunami Warning Center<\/a> analyzed material deposited into Makauwahi Cave, Kauaʻi<\/span> during a tsunami—specifically, coral fragments that were previously dated to approximately the sixteenth century using carbon-14. Using specific isotopes of naturally-occurring thorium and uranium in the coral fragments, they determined a very precise age of the tsunami event that washed the coral ashore. Prior carbon-14 dates had an uncertainty of ±120 years, whereas the uranium-thorium date is more precise, 1572±21 years. This increased precision allowed better comparison with dated, known tsunamis and earthquakes throughout the Pacific.<\/p>\n

“Although we were aware of the 1586 Sanriku tsunami, the age of the Kauaʻi<\/span> deposit was too uncertain to establish a link,” said Butler. “Also, the 1586 Sanriku event had been ascribed to an earthquake in Lima, Peru. After dating the corals, their more precise date matched with that of the Sanriku tsunami.”<\/p>\n

Evidence from the ‘ring of fire’<\/h2>\n

Further, re-analysis of the Peruvian evidence showed that the 1586 Peruvian earthquake was not large enough to create a measurable tsunami hitting Japan. They found additional corroborative evidence around the Pacific which strengthened the case. Earthquakes from Cascadia, the Alaskan Kodiak region, and Kamchatka were incompatible with the Sanriku data in several ways. However, a mega-earthquake (magnitude greater than 9.25) in the Aleutians was consistent with evidence from Kauaʻi<\/span> and the northeast coast of Japan.<\/p>\n

“Hawaiʻi<\/span> is surrounded by the ‘ring of fire’ where mega-earthquakes generate great tsunamis impacting our island shores—the 2011 T\u014dhoku Japan is the most recent example,” said Butler. “Even though there was no seismic instrumentation in the 16th century, we offer a preponderance of evidence for the occurrence of a magnitude 9 earthquake in the Aleutian Islands. Our knowledge of past events helps us to forecast tsunami effects and thereby enable us to assess this risk for Hawaiʻi<\/span>.”<\/p>\n

\"Graphs
Tsunami amplitudes for (a) Mw 9.25 earthquake in E Aleutians, (b) Mw 8.05 earthquake in Lima, Peru<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Looking to the past to prepare for the future<\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Location (red dot) of the Makauwahi sinkhole on southeastern coast of Kauaʻi<\/span>. Credit: Butler, et al.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Forecast models of a great Aleutian event inform the development of new maps of extreme tsunami inundation zones for the State of Hawaiʻi<\/span>. By linking evidence on Kauaʻi<\/span> to other sites around the Pacific, researchers can better understand the Aleutian earthquake that generated the tsunami.<\/p>\n

Butler and colleagues at 糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> M\u0101noa are now working to determine how frequently great earthquakes along the Cascadia margin of the Pacific Northwest might occur. These events have the potential to devastate the coasts of Oregon and Washington, and send a dangerous tsunami to Hawaiʻi<\/span>’s shores.<\/p>\n

The coral dating was funded by director’s funds from the 糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> Mānoa Hawaiʻi<\/span> Institute of Geophysics and Planetology<\/a>. Tsunami forecast methods were provided by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center of NOAA<\/abbr>. Historical and scientific literature research used the resources of the University of Hawaiʻi<\/span> library.<\/p>\n

—By Marcie Grabowski<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coral fragments from Kauaʻi<\/span> suggest a mega-earthquake from the Aleutian Islands caused the tsunami.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":61181,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[378,134,92,9],"class_list":["post-61161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-geology-and-geophysics","tag-international","tag-school-of-ocean-and-earth-science-and-technology","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/manoa-soest-sanriku-tsunami-amplitudes.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61161"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117898,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61161\/revisions\/117898"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}