F. Nanayama et al., Sedimentary differences between the 1993 Hokkaido-nansei-oki tsunami and the 1959 Miyakojima typhoon at Taisei, southwestern Hokkaido, northern Japan, SEDIMENT GE, 135(1-4), 2000, pp. 255-264
Tsunami deposits differ distinctly from storm deposits as seen in a trench
in the southwestern Hokkaido town of Taisei, which was struck by a typhoon
in 1959 and a tsunami in 1993. The typhoon generated a storm surge that cre
sted about 6 m above ordinary high-tide levels for 1 h. The tsunami, caused
by a nearby earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8, contained two main waves a
nd was 1-3 m higher than the typhoon surge. We found deposits from both the
typhoon and the tsunami in a 3 by 9 m trench located 60 m inland from the
beach. The deposits are similar in thickness, which in both cases decrease
landward from a maximum of about 50 cm. The tsunami deposits can be divided
into four layers probably correlative with landward and seaward flows from
the two main tsunami waves; the Row directions are shown by gravel fabrics
, and remains of knocked-down plants. The landward tsunami how deposited ma
rine sand and rounded gravel, whereas the return flow deposited a poorly so
rted mixture of soil, non-marine sand, and stream gravel with plant fragmen
ts. Only the storm deposit shows foreset bedding. This deposit is mostly ma
rine sand that is better sorted than any of the tsunami layers. (C) 2000 El
sevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.