Abstract

Natural hazards such as tsunamis cause significant loss of life and damage to properties, ecosystems and marine structures and facilities. Tsunami modelling results are used for deriving robust design conditions for coastal and marine structures and facilities. The model results are also used for emergency planning and decision-making to estimate potential loss of life, damage to properties and marine facilities and to develop rescue and mitigation measures and plan clean-up operations. Royal HaskoningDHV (hereafter RHDHV) has set up a regional tidal hydrodynamic model covering the Arabian Sea to provide data to address the above issues. The Owen Ridge is a prominent submarine relief located 300 to 400km away from the coast of Oman. Literature search suggests large landslide along the Owen Ridge that could have occurred in the past. Numerical modelling of a potential tsunami from landslide along the Owen Ridge was carried out in the present study. The MIKE21 Flow Model FM developed by DHI was used to simulate this tsunami and sample results from the modelling study are presented in this paper for illustration purposes. Structural design considerations and tsunami risk reduction measures are also discussed. The model could be used to simulate any tsunami generated within the Arabian Sea. The methodology described in this paper for modelling the tsunami in the Owen Ridge could also be applied to simulate this type of events at other sites around the world.

Keywords: Tsunami; Owen ridge; Natural hazards; Earthquakes; Seismicity; Landslide; Numerical modelling; Arabian sea; Port development; RHDHV