by stefant on Mon Jul 25, 2011 11:21 am
(Note that this message was originally sent via email on July 5, 2011)
Dear Harry,
Looks like an interesting program--I'm looking forward to attending. I noticed that that you've put me down for a 20 minute segment. I'm happy and honored to talk, but have to confess that all the information I have for the 1883 Krakatoa tsunami in the Columbia is one graph from Astoria (i.e., I havn't run any model simulations of run-up, etc; to do so would require implementing the historical bathymetry, which is on our long-range to-do list). What I can do--if you agree it's interesting--is do a short review of what we know about historical tsunamis in the Columbia River (e.g., the 1700 event, Krakatoa and others from the 1800's, the great Alaskan earthquake (for which there is decent run-up data). I can then put this in the context of changes to the Columbia River in the last 150 years, and make the basic point that a 1700 style event would see a much different river today than historically. I can show this with historical bathymetry charts and with the tide data that we are digitizing this summer from Astoria, 1853-1876. The tide data show that the system was much more frictional in the past (e.g., much more distorted wave form). River flow was also different (but David will cover this, I'm sure). Would such a talk be interesting to folks?
thanks,
Stefan