Study of Tsunamis in Greece and Italy at the Turn of the Millenium

Abstract

The last ten years or so an intensive effort was made by several institutes to promote the tsunami research in Europe mainly thanks to the research projects GITEC (1992 – 1995) and GITEC — TWO (1996 – 1998) supported by the EU — DGXII as well as to other research initiatives, like a trilateral Japanese — Greek — Turkish (JGT) project (1996 – 1998) focused particularly to the Aegean Sea tsunamis. Within the frame of these research activities the Institute of Geodynamics, National Observatory of Athens (NOAGI), collaborating with several institutes, performed tsunami research directed mainly to the following topics:

• 1. An instrumental Tsunami Warning System (TWS) in the Kythira Strait, South Aegean Sea, was installed and its experimental operation was tested.

• 2. A new tsunami catalogue of Greece and adjacent seas was compiled.

• 3. A pilot tsunami risk management study in the Heracleon coastal area, Crete Island, was performed.

• 4. Efforts were made in modelling numerically particular tsunami waves in the South Aegean Sea and in the Corinth Gulf.

• 5. Geological methods were developed to investigate and identify palaeotsunamis in particular coastal segments of the Aegean Sea, while submarine geological studies and geophysical prospecting were performed to understand better the mechanism of tsunamigenesis of the large July 9, 1956, catastrophic tsunami in the South Aegean Sea.