Tsunami Hazards Associated with the Catalina Fault in Southern California

Abstract

We investigate the tsunami hazard associated with the Catalina Fault offshore of southern California. Realistic faulting parameters are used to match coseismic displacements to existing sea floor topography. Several earthquake scenarios with moment magnitudes ranging between 7.0 and 7.6 are used as initial conditions for tsunami simulations, which predict runup of up to 4 m. Normalizing runup with the maximum uplift identifies areas susceptible to tsunami focusing and amplification. Several harbors and ports in southern California lie in areas where models predict tsunami amplification. Return periods are estimated by dividing the modeled seafloor uplift per event by the observed total uplift of the Santa Catalina Island platform multiplied by the time since the uplift began. The analysis yields return periods between 2,000 to 5,000 years for the Catalina Fault alone, and 200 to 500 years when all offshore faults are considered.