Open AccessTsunami generation: a comparison of traditional and normal mode approaches
Author(s) -
Comer Robert P.
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
geophysical journal of the royal astronomical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.302
H-Index - 168
eISSN - 1365-246X
pISSN - 0016-8009
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-246x.1984.tb01924.x
Subject(s) - superposition principle , mode (computer interface) , moment (physics) , boundary value problem , equivalence (formal languages) , moment tensor , geology , spacetime , earth model , mathematical analysis , boundary (topology) , tensor (intrinsic definition) , mathematics , geophysics , geodesy , physics , computer science , geometry , classical mechanics , oceanography , deformation (meteorology) , operating system , discrete mathematics , quantum mechanics
Summary. Techniques to model tsunami generation by earthquakes may be divided into two broad categories, according to whether the ocean and solid earth are fully or partially coupled. The former category includes normal mode techniques while the latter is comprised of more traditional approaches, including those in which the hydrodynamic equations for the ocean are solved subject to an inhomogeneous time‐dependent boundary condition at the ocean floor. We compare representatives of each approach, using a solution for the flat earth tsunami mode excitation due to a point moment tensor earthquake source and a more traditional model in which the ocean floor boundary condition is derived from the static response of an elastic half‐space to a point moment tensor. The results are nearly identical and extend to finite sources according to linear superposition, thus establishing the practical equivalence of the two conceptually divergent techniques and assuring the general validity of models with partial coupling.