The Limit of Inundation of the September 29, 2009, Tsunami on Tutuila, American Samoa

By Bruce E. Jaffe, Guy Gelfenbaum, Mark L. Buckley, Steve Watt, Alex Apotsos, Andrew W. Stevens, and Bruce M. Richmond

ABSTRACT

Thumbnail of and link to report PDF (13.2 MB)

U.S. Geological Survey scientists investigated the coastal impacts of the September 29, 2009, South Pacific tsunami in Tutuila, American Samoa in October and November 2009, including mapping the alongshore variation in the limit of inundation. Knowing the inundation limit is useful for planning safer coastal development and evacuation routes for future tsunamis and for improving models of tsunami hazards. This report presents field data documenting the limit of inundation at 18 sites around Tutuila collected in the weeks following the tsunami using Differential GPS (DGPS). In total, 15,703 points along inundation lines were mapped. Estimates of DGPS error and uncertainty in interpretation of the inundation line are provided as electronic files that accompany this report.

Last modified February 18, 2010
First posted February 3, 2010

Report PDF (13.2 MB)
Inundation line data .zip file (1.6 MB; opens to an 18.5-MB folder). UTM coordinates (WGS 1984 UTM Zone 2S) of the inundation limit, as well as DGPS and interpretation uncertainty, are provided in three file types: (1) a comma-delimited text file, (2) a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, and (3) an ESRI shapefile.
Metadata folder (44 kB); two file types: ASCII and FAQ as html

This report is available only on the Web.

For additional information:
Contact Information, Western Coastal and Marine Geology
U.S. Geological Survey
Pacific Science Center
400 Natural Bridges Drive
Santa Cruz, California 95060
http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/

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Suggested citation:

Jaffe, B.E., Gelfenbaum, Guy, Buckley, M.L., Watt, Steve, Apotsos, Alex, Stevens, A.W., and Richmond, B.M., 2010, The limit of inundation of the September 29, 2009, tsunami on Tutuila, American Samoa: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2010-1018, 27 p.

Contents

Abstract

Introduction

Methods

Uncertainty in Location of the Inundation Line

Inundation Limits

Acknowledgements

References

Appendix

GIS data package