The 29 September 2009 Samoa Islands Tsunami: Simulations Based
on the First Focal Mechanism Solutions and Implications on
Tsunami Early Warning Strategies The tsunamigenic earthquake (Mw
= 8.1) that occurred on 29 September 2009 at 17:48 UTC offshore
of the Samoa archipelago east of the Tonga trench represents an
example of the so-called outer-rise earthquakes. The areas most
affected were the south coasts of Western and American Samoa,
where almost 200 people were killed and run-up heights were
measured in excess of 5 m at several locations along the coast.
Moreover, tide gauge records showed a maximum peak-to-peak
height of about 3.5 m near Pago Pago (American Samoa) and of 1.5
m offshore of Apia (Western Samoa). In this work, different
fault models based on the focal mechanism solutions proposed by
Global CMT and by USGS immediately after the 2009 Samoan
earthquake are tested by comparing the near-field recorded
signals (three offshore DART buoys and two coastal tide gauges)
and the synthetic signals provi