In 1852, a five-minute long earthquake hit the Banda Arc region that was felt over most of Indonesia. It caused uplift of new islands and sent a tsunami across the Banda Sea that reached a height of 8 meters at Banda Neira and was also registered at Ambon, Saparua and other islands. Records of the 1852 earthquake at multiple locations provide the constraints needed to reconstruct the disastrous event through earthquake intensity analysis and numerical modeling of the tsunami. Using tsunami heights and arrival times as the major constraints, best fit numerical models of the tsunami were constructed using Clawpack. These models indicate that the earthquake was most likely a mega-thrust event along the Tanimbar Trough with a Mw of around 8.4. At least 10-15 meters of elastic strain energy has accumulated along the Tanimbar Through since the 1852 event, and the population in the region has increased exponentially. When another event occurs ≥ that in 1852, there will be many more people and treasure in harms way.

In this study, numerical modeling of landslide generated tsunami waves in closed basins and their mechanisms are presented. Historical landslide generated tsunamis are investigated and also the governing parameters affecting impulse wave parameters are studied. The numerical model is based on the solution of nonlinear form of the long wave equations with respect to related initial and boundary conditions. In order to validate the outputs of the modeling by NAMIDANCE, empirical formulation is applied to the same cases as the numerical model and the results are discussed. The numerical model is then applied to Pervari Dam artificial reservoir as a case study to investigate the effects of potential landslide into the reservoir. The outputs of the numerical model are compared with empirical formulation results for different approaches of modeling the landslide effect in water body. The critical sections are observed for overtopping and maximum wave amplitude values and the results are discussed.

In this thesis study / mechanism and modeling of tsunamis generated by landslides are investigated. Landslide parameters affecting the surface wave characterisics are studied. In order to understand occurance of this kind of tsunamis, among many historical tsunamis, the ones that are triggered by landslides are detected and studied. The generation of the landslide generated tsunamis are modeled using TWO-LAYER model, which solves nonlinear long wave equations simultaneously within two interfacing layers with necessary boundary conditions at the sea bed, interface and water surface. The model is applied to one of the possible landslides at offshore Yalova in the Sea of Marmara. Two of the controlling parameters, which are the density and the thickness of the slid material, are analysed and a sensitivity analysis is performed to determine the level of their effects on the evolution and amplitude of the tsunami source. Furthermore, the propagation and coastal amplification of the landslide generated waves are investigated using the tsunami simulation and visualization code NAMI DANCE. The results are presented, compared and discussed.

Wider awareness, proper preparedness and effective mitigation strategies need better understanding of tsunamis and tsunami hazard assessment. Tsunami assessment study covers the exchange and enhancement of available earthquake and tsunami data, development of bathymetric and topographic data in sufficient resolution, selection of possible or credible tsunami scenarios, selection and application of the valid and verified numerical tools for tsunami generation, propagation, coastal amplification, inundation and visualization. From this point of view, this thesis deals with all these components of tsunami hazards assessment. The database of 38 different seismic sources is generated and applied to Eastern Mediterranean Basin by using numerical code called NAMI DANCE. Furthermore, the simulation results are compared and discussed. In the thesis, the difficulties in defining seismic source parameters, the effect of dip and rake (slip) angle on seismic generated tsunamis are evaluated. Moreover, the performance of the numerical code, the accuracy of results, the efficiency of the numerical methods in the application to Mediterranean Basin Tsunamis and the comparisons of simulations in nested domains for Bodrum, Kas and Iskenderun are given as case studies. According to the study, north-west and south-west of Turkey may have tsunami risk more than other regions. The maximum wave amplitudes, which may be expected to occur near the shore, are found more than 4 m. However, maximum positive wave amplitude observed in history is approximately 8 m. The arrival time of first wave to hit the coasts vary in a range of 15 to 60 minutes depending on the closeness of the location to the sources&rsquo / epicenter.

Tsunamis, as the catastrophic disasters, can cause loss of live and property when they come to the shores. Preparation of emergency plans is essential to reduce the damage. Consequently, any initiative in tsunami modeling and inundation mapping is of vital importance for progressing safety surveillance and maintenance. In an effort to achieve a thorough analysis of effect of tsunami, it is critical to estimate the geographical extent of possibly affected area and to predict tsunami impacts. The inundation mapping system also must serve to manage the simulation data in a scalable environment to reach end-users in the time of event. For this purpose, in this study, the generation of a Web based Geographic Information System (GIS) to serve inundation maps through web. The research methodology consists of four main stages: (i) simulating tsunamis based on six different scenarios (ii) processing simulation data through a GIS application / (iii) development of web interfaces and implementation of the developed model for Web-GIS application / (iv) verification of the created model for Marmara Sea Region. The proposed system is expected to be an efficient tool for improving inundation mapping efforts for expected tsunamis in Turkey.

Chapter 1-2:The Cassini RADAR mapper has imaged elevated blocks and mountains on Titan we term ‘ridges’. Two unresolved problems regarding Titan's surface are still debated: what is the origin of its ridges and was there tectonic activity on Titan? To understand the processes that produced the ridges, in this study, (1) we analyze the distribution and orientation of ridges through systematic geomorphologic mapping and (2) we compare the location of the ridges to a new global topographic map to explore the correlation between elevation and ridges and the implications for Titan's surface evolution. Globally, the orientation of ridges is nearly E-W and the ridges are more common near the equator than at the poles, which suggests a tectonic origin for most of the ridges on Titan. In addition, the ridges are found to preferentially lie at higher-than-average elevations near the equator. We conclude the most reasonable formation scenario for Titan's ridges is that contractional tectonism built the ridges and thickened the icy lithosphere, causing regional uplift. The combination of global and regional tectonic events, likely contractional in nature, plus enhanced fluvial erosion and sedimentation near the poles, would have contributed to shaping Titan's tectonic landforms and surface morphology to what we see today. However, contractional structures (i.e. thrusts and folds) require large stresses (8~10 MPa), the sources of which probably do not exist on Titan. Liquid hydrocarbons in Titan's near subsurface must play a role similar to that of water on Earth and lead to fluid overpressures, which enable contractional deformation at smaller stresses (< 1MPa) by significantly reducing the shear strength of materials. We show that crustal conditions with enhanced pore fluid pressures on Titan favor the formation of thrust faults and related folds, in a contractional stress field. The production of folds, as on Earth, is facilitated by the presence of crustal liquids to weaken the crust. These hydrocarbon fluids have played a key role in Titan's tectonic evolutionary history, leaving it the only icy body on which strong evidence for contractional tectonism exists. Chapter 3: Arthur Wichmann's ‘Earthquakes of the Indian Archipelago’ documents several large earthquakes and tsunami throughout the Banda Arc region that can be interpreted as mega-thrust events. However, the source regions of these events are not known. One of the largest and well-documented events in the catalog is the great earthquake and tsunami affecting the Banda islands on 1 August 1629. It caused severe damage from a 15-meter tsunami that arrived at the Banda Islands about a half hour after violent shaking stopped. The earthquake was also recorded 230 km away in Ambon, but no tsunami is mentioned. This event was followed by at least 9 years of uncommonly frequent seismic activity in the region that tapered off with time, which can be interpreted as aftershocks. The combination of these observations indicates that the earthquake was most likely a mega-thrust event. We use an inverse modeling approach to numerically reconstruct the tsunami, which constrains the likely location and magnitude of the 1629 earthquake. Only linear numerical models are applied due to the low-resolution of bathymetry in the Banda Islands and Ambon. Therefore, we apply various wave amplification factors (1.5 to 4) derived from simulations of recent, well-constrained tsunami to bracket the upper and lower limits of earthquake moment magnitudes for the event. The closest major earthquake sources to the Banda Islands are the Tanimbar and Seram Troughs of the Banda subduction/collision zone. Other source regions are too far away for such a short arrival time of the tsunami after shaking. Moment magnitudes predicted by the models in order to produce a 15 m tsunami are Mw of 9.8 to 9.2 on the Tanimbar Trough and Mw 8.8 to 8.2 on the Seram Trough. The arrival times of these waves are 58 minutes for Tanimbar Trough and 30 minutes for Seram Trough. The model also predicts 5 meters run-up for Ambon from a Tanimbar Trough source, which is inconsistent with the historical records. Ambon is mostly shielded from a wave generated by a Seram Trough Source.We conclude that the most likely source of the 1629 mega-thrust earthquake is the Seram Trough. Only one earthquake > Mw 8.0 is recorded instrumentally from the eastern Indonesia region although high rates of strain (50-80 mm/a) are measured across the Seram section of the Banda subduction zone. Enough strain has already accumulated since the last major historical event to produce an earthquake of similar size to the 1629 event. Due to the rapid population growth in coastal areas in this region, it is imperative that the most vulnerable coastal areas prepare accordingly.