Simulation of Andaman 2004 tsunami for assessing impact on Malaysia

Mistakenly perceived as safe from the hazards of tsunami, Malaysia faced a rude awakening by the 26 December 2004 Andaman tsunami. Since the event, Malaysia has started active research on some aspects of tsunami, including numerical simulations of tsunami and the role of mangrove as a mitigation measure against tsunami hazards. An in-house tsunami numerical simulation model TUNA has been developed and applied to the 26 December 2004 Andaman tsunami to simulate the generation, propagation and inundation processes along affected beaches in Malaysia. Mildly nonlinear bottom friction term in the deeper ocean is excluded, as it is insignificant to the simulation results, consistent with theoretical expectation. On the other hand, in regions with shallow depth near the beaches, friction and nonlinearity are significant and are included in TUNA. Simulation results with TUNA indicate satisfactory performance when compared with COMCOT and on-site survey results.