INTERACTION OF TSUNAMIS AND TROPICAL CYCLONES

Tsunamis and storm surge from tropical cyclones have devastating consequences for coastal settlements. Due to their importance, their incidence has been characterized by their resulting morphological changes using paleodeposits. This type of proxies can provide uncertainty on the type of genesis, which has led to debates in the scientific community. Nevertheless, the hypothesis of simultaneous events reaching the coast has not been address as a possible explanation of such deposits. In this study we perform numerical simulations to explore the interaction of a tsunami with a tropical cyclone storm surge at different astronomical tides. The study is based on the 1995 Manzanillo earthquake and hurricane Winifred (1992), showing how the interaction between events amplifies the water levels and current velocities generated by individual events. A sediment transport model is used to estimate bed level changes for different scenarios, providing insight on the expected morphological changes for individual and simultaneous events.