Introduction to “Tsunamis: 1992–94”

Abstract

Tsunamis have caused extensive human and property damage in the world. There had not been a tsunami disaster since 1983, when the Japan Sea earthquake tsunami caused 100 fatalities. In the three-year period (1992–94), however, several destructive tsunamis occurred in the world and caused more than 1,500 casualties. After each of these tsunami disasters, field survey teams consisting of scientists and engineers from various fields and countries were dispatched. They measured tsunami runup heights and estimated the velocity, direction and other local behavior. In addition to such hydrodynamic features, they searched for evidence of coseismic ground deformation and tsunami depositions and erosions. The first goal of this topical issue is to document data from these tsunamis for later use in various tsunami-related research.