Tsunami receeding water question

1. Jan 5, 2005

cbrauner

1. What causes water to leave the shore preceeding the tsunami wave peak?

2. Is the cause of that receeding water different from when regular waves approach the shore?

2. Jan 5, 2005

3. Jan 5, 2005

cbrauner

preceding trough

The two responses regarding the "outflow" of water preceding the tsunami wave do not support each other. I need a better explanation of the physics.

Furthermore, how does a single upthrust of a tectonic plate generate a series of waves?

4. Jan 5, 2005

Staff: Mentor

The same way dropping a stone in a lake creates a series of waves - it starts an oscillation that continues until damped. Water is pushed away, then rebounds (actually sending a column of water up), then that water falls away, etc., etc., etc.

http://www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/animation/Areas/secondary/closeUpDiveSplash.html [Broken] animation from NOAA, you can see that the biggest trough also preceded the biggest wave (the dark blue line) - obviously its a much more complicated event than a single splash, though. It also looks like what traveled west was a different shape - probably due to the sea-foor shape.

Also, an earthquake isn't a single event: they generally last 30-60 seconds, which also causes a series of waves.

Last edited by a moderator: May 1, 2017
5. Jan 6, 2005

cbrauner

Thank you

Thank you Russ.
We just learned of this website and were figuring out how it works.

This more detailed explanation and links helped to expand and clairfy your first explanation in the other thread. We didn't realize that there were smaller "tsunami" waves that came before the large one or that they could cause such a big trough before the "big" wave first hit land.

6. Jan 7, 2005

Orion1

A Tsunami is a wave which damps off as its amplitude increases. The increase in amplitude is due to a decrease in waveform velocity due to a shallowing ocean depth and conservation of wave energy.

Tsunami celerity velocity:
$$v_c = \sqrt{gd}$$
$$g$$ - gravitational acceleration constant.
$$d$$ - ocean depth

A tsunami 'wave recession' is a 'leading wave' of negative amplitude. The negative amplitude height being equal to the height difference between its maximum recession ocean level and its 'normal' ocean level.

Reference:
http://www.prh.noaa.gov/itic/library/pubs/glossary/tsu_glossary_images/bigimage1_pg14.jpg
http://www.scubageek.com/geek/articles/wwwceler.html

Tsunami Photos:
http://img93.exs.cx/img93/6783/tsunami29bh.jpg
http://img93.exs.cx/img93/4707/tsunami39ge.jpg
http://img93.exs.cx/img93/6052/tsunami45sw.jpg
http://img93.exs.cx/img93/4176/tsunami53jm.jpg
http://img84.exs.cx/img84/7036/tsunami61kb.jpg
http://img84.exs.cx/img84/8669/tsunami72fb.jpg
http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/tsunami/Oceans99/Images/pic_1_2.jpg
http://www.buffalonews.com/graphics/2004/12/27/actualsize/1227waves.jpg [Broken]

Last edited by a moderator: May 1, 2017