Building a Tsunami Simulation Database for the Tsunami Warning System in the Philippines

Abstract

To enhance the tsunami warning operation system in the Philippines caused by earthquakes in and around the country, staff members of the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) joined the SATREPS program in 2012 to help building a tsunami simulation database in the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS), which storesmultiple results of tsunami simulations such as estimated tsunami arrival times and heights at coasts for multiple hypothetical earthquakes of various hypocenter locations and magnitudes. The procedure to construct a database consists of several steps starting from setting assumed fault parameters and others, proceeding to tsunami simulations and data creation to be stored in the database, and as the last step, creating a searching system which picks results from the database according to the location and magnitude of an earthquake. As of July 2014, the PHIVOLCS has stored the results of tsunami simulations conducted for more than 30,000 assumed faults for local tsunamis. The searching system is also prepared which enables to get a quick grasp of expected tsunami features quantitatively. With this database and the searching system, the PHIVOLCS is in near future to issue initial tsunami warnings based on the information of estimated tsunami arrival times and heights immediately after the hypocenter location and magnitude of an earthquake are determined. When the necessary coordination with related organizations as well as the public education for the system and warning messages are ready, the PHIVOLCS will start the enhanced local tsunami warning operation.