Santa Cruz researcher is modeling possible California tsunamis

This afternoon, a prescient friend sent me a link to a Santa Cruz Sentinel story about Steven Ward, a UC Santa Cruz researcher who models tsunamis  caused both by earthquakes and by meteorites. Ward researches possible tsunamis in Asia as well, but he has been modeling earthquake-induced tsunamis on the coast of California. Ward says a 7.5 magnitude quake could send a 15-foot tsunami to the Santa Cruz shoreline in minutes.

In 1946 an elderly man was killed by a wave while walking around the point from Cowell Beach from a 7.5-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Alaska. A Santa Cruz restaurant located at the entrance of the Municipal Wharf reported that water levels rose up to its floorboards.

There’s a ton of information, simulations, and presentations at Steven Ward’s Web site.