The world's largest tsunami experimentation facility opens to the public, to educate about the workings and destructive power of tsunamis/Kanagawa prefecture

Translated from the original article at: http://news.kanaloco.jp/localnews/article/1111190003/

Caption: The world's largest tsunami experimentation facility opens to the public=Yokasuka City

The world's largest tsunami experimentation facility was installed by the Sea and Airport Research institution  (Nagase, Yokosuka city) on the 18th. On the general public opening, over two hundred local elementary students learned of the workings and destructive power of tsunamis.

In the constructed canal for large scale synthesized waves, the largest mad-made tsunami to occur was 2.5 meters high (184 meters long, 3.5 meters wide, and 12 meters deep). During the performance, secondary waves reached .5 meters high. The water rushed through corrugated sheets constructed out of iron, with the water level rising as the tsunami advanced.



Also, at the adjoined National Institute for Land and Infrastructure Management, senior researcher Kentarō Kumagai, has made a new assumption regarding the Keichō earthquake of 1605. "Despite there not being a large amount of seismic activity, a tsunami did advance (Tsunami Earthquake), he explained.



Original Text:
世界最大級の津波実験施設を公開、津波の仕組みや威力を学ぶ/神奈川

世界最大級の津波実験施設を公開＝横須賀

世界最大級の津波実験施設を備えた港湾空港技術研究所（横須賀市長瀬）で18日、一般公開があり、地元小学生ら２００人余りが津波の仕組みや威力について学んだ。

最大２・５メートルの人工津波を起こせる「大規模波動地盤総合水路」（長さ１８４メートル、幅３・５メートル、深さ12メートル）では、高さ０・５メートルの津波を繰り返し実演。鉄製の「造波板」が水を押し込むと、水面が盛り上がりながら押し寄せた。

 また、隣接する国土技術政策総合研究所の熊谷兼太郎主任研究官が、県内沿岸部に最大の津波をもたらすと新たに想定された１６０５年の慶長地震について「揺れが大きくないのに津波が押し寄せる『津波地震』だった」と説明した。