Open AccessThe Indian Ocean disaster: Tsunami physics and early warning dilemmas
Author(s) -
Lomnitz Cinna,
NilsenHofseth Sara
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
eos, transactions american geophysical union
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.316
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 2324-9250
pISSN - 0096-3941
DOI - 10.1029/2005eo070001
Subject(s) - tsunami wave , indian ocean , epicenter , seismology , rayleigh wave , geology , geophysics , earth (classical element) , oceanography , physics , wave propagation , optics , astronomy
Understanding the physics of tsunamis may save lives, especially near the epicenter of a large earthquake where the danger is highest and early warning is least likely to be effective. Normal modes of Earth are standing waves of the Love (toroidal) or the Rayleigh (spheroidal) variety. The Indian Ocean tsunami may have been partly or wholly caused by low‐order spheroidal modes of the Earth such as 0 S 2 , 0 S 3 , and 0 S 4 , that may have excited a waveguide—a layer that confines and guides a propagating wave—in the ocean.