Specific Features of the Propagation of Tsunamis in the Northwest Part of the Black Sea

We perform the numerical analysis of the propagation of tsunamis in the Black Sea from the zones of seismic generation located to the south of the Crimea and in the northwest part of the sea. It is shown that the tsunamis induced by earthquakes in the Crimean seismic zone are entrapped by the nearest part of the shelf and do not result in noticeable oscillations of level in the northwest part of the sea. This enables us to explain the absence of manifestations of tsunamis in 1927, 1939, and 1966 near Odessa. The tsunami waves generated by earthquakes in the northwest part of the sea are characterized by the directivity of their propagation. The wave height is maximum in the areas corresponding to the north and east directions of propagation. Hence, the north coast of the sea and the Kalamit Bay (Crimean Peninsula) are characterized by elevated tsunami hazard for earthquakes occurring in the northwest part of the Black Sea. __________ Translated from Morskoi Gidrofizicheskii Zhurnal, No. 6, pp. 46–53, November–December, 2005.