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About tsunamis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2016

Maurice N. Brearley
Maurice N. Brearley*
Affiliation:
85 Dandarriga Drive, Clifton Springs, Victoria, 3222, Australia
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Extract

A tsunami usually starts on deep ocean water as a result of a submarine earthquake. A tsunami wave is very long, even as much as tens of kilometres, but of only very small amplitude, typically less than half a metre (Bascom [1]). In mid-ocean, the passage of a tsunami is imperceptible, but on reaching a shore it can achieve great heights and can deliver massive surges of water. Before the arrival of the first surge, and between subsequent surges, the water at a shore line usually retracts for a long distance, leaving bare large areas of ocean floor that are normally under water. This paper analyses the behaviour of a tsunami, and explains how its mid-ocean character is transformed to produce such massive surges of water at a shore line.

Type
Articles
Information
The Mathematical Gazette , Volume 89 , Issue 516 , November 2005 , pp. 437 - 440
Copyright
Copyright © The Mathematical Association 2004

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References

1. Bascom, W., Ocean waves, Scientific American (August 1959).Google Scholar
2. Ramsey, A. S., A treatise on hydromechanics, Part II, Bell (1960).Google Scholar
3. Milne-Thomson, L. M., Theoretical hydrodynamics, Macmillan (1949).Google Scholar