Comparison between three-dimensional linear and nonlinear tsunami generation models

Abstract

The modeling of tsunami generation is an essential phase in understanding tsunamis. For tsunamis generated by underwater earthquakes, it involves the modeling of the sea bottom motion as well as the resulting motion of the water above it. A comparison between various models for three-dimensional water motion, ranging from linear theory to fully nonlinear theory, is performed. It is found that for most events the linear theory is sufficient. However, in some cases, more sophisticated theories are needed. Moreover, it is shown that the passive approach in which the seafloor deformation is simply translated to the ocean surface is not always equivalent to the active approach in which the bottom motion is taken into account, even if the deformation is supposed to be instantaneous.

39 pages, 16 figures; Accepted to Theoretical and Computational Fluid Dynamics. Several references have been added

References in corpus (2)

• Water waves generated by a moving bottom
• Linear theory of wave generation by a moving bottom

Cited by in corpus (9)

• The VOLNA code for the numerical modelling of tsunami waves: generation, propagation and inundation
• Finite volume schemes for dispersive wave propagation and runup
• Tsunami generation by dynamic displacement of sea bed due to dip-slip faulting
• On the use of finite fault solution for tsunami generation problems
• Energy of tsunami waves generated by bottom motion
• On the contribution of the horizontal sea-bed displacements into the tsunami generation process
• Modified Shallow Water Equations for significantly varying seabeds
• Dispersive wave runup on non-uniform shores
• Numerical study of the generalised Klein-Gordon equations