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Historical earthquakes, tsunamis and real-time earthquake monitoring for tsunami advisory in the South China Sea region

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Abstract

The South China Sea Tsunami Advisory Center (SCSTAC) established by China, under the aegis of UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (UNESCO/IOC), had inaugurated commencing its full operation on November 5, 2019. This center is operating 24 × 7 h and round-the-clock shift to monitor tsunami hazard that pose a serious threat to countries which bordering the South China Sea (SCS) region. Prior to the official operation, SCSTAC had taken action for the last 10 years in upgrading their technology capability which are real-time earthquake monitoring and the processing system that is crucial to be able providing the international standard of tsunami warning services in the SCS and its adjacent areas. This paper briefly reviewed on the initiation steps and its developments of the South China Sea region Tsunami Warning and Mitigation Systems, tectonic setting as well as the characteristics of historical earthquakes and tsunamis in the region. In addition, we highlighted the structure and basic functions of the earthquake monitoring and processing system, earthquake location, source mechanism solution and finite fault model inversion using the real-time seismic waveform data from regional and global seismographic networks that will result in the rapid source parameters estimation for a larger earthquake in tsunami warning. Numerous simulations and hands-on events have shown that the preliminary earthquake parameters could be determined less than 8 min after earthquake. The W phase method is used and be able to produce rapid and reliable estimation of the moment magnitude and source mechanism for larger events within 10–15 min from earthquake origin time. A finite fault model can be acquired just after the earthquake event via computing teleseismic body-wave inversion program. The earthquake monitoring and processing system provide accurate and reliable information in contributing to tsunami warning services, thus promoting the development of tsunami warning technologies, which enhancing the tsunami warning capability and tsunami emergency responses. These high-end technology can be used in facilitating others such as marine disaster prevention, mitigation and its risk reduction.

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source time function and slip distribution in the rectangular finite fault model inverted from two conjugate nodal planes, respectively. The focal mechanism solution of the Molucca Sea earthquake was derived from W phase faster inversion

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Acknowledgements

Great thanks to the aid, assistance and support from IOC/UNESCO, the Intergovernmental Coordination Group for the Pacific Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, the Northwest Pacific Tsunami Advisory Center, the tsunami warning centers surrounding the South China Sea region, as well as the China Earthquake Administration during the process of establishment and operation of the SCSTAC. Thanks to Gempa of Germany and BRTT of the USA for the earthquake monitoring and processing system, thanks to IRIS/DMC, GEOPHONE and GEOSCOPE for providing the real-time seismic waveforms, and thanks to Luis Rivera for the W phase inversion program and Kikuchi for the teleseismic body-wave inversion program. We used the GMT software for drawing the figures. This study was supported by State Key Laboratory of Marine Geology, Tongji University (No. MGK202004).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center, Bei**g, 100081, China

    Zhiguo Xu, Hongwei Li & Jianyu Shi

  2. Key Laboratory of Computational Geodynamics, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Bei**g, 100049, China

    Zhiguo Xu

  3. China Earthquake Networks Center, Bei**g, 100045, China

    Shanshan Liang

  4. Malaysian Meteorological Department, Jalan Sultan, Petalling Jaya, 46667, Selangor, Malaysia

    Mohd Nashriq Bin Abd Rahman

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  1. Zhiguo Xu
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Correspondence to Shanshan Liang.

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Xu, Z., Liang, S., Abd Rahman, M.N.B. et al. Historical earthquakes, tsunamis and real-time earthquake monitoring for tsunami advisory in the South China Sea region. Nat Hazards 107, 771–793 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-021-04605-z

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