I am trying to understand how can I model the travel time of tsunami waves generated by volcanic explosions? I want to analyze the 2022 Tonga tsunami. I have been using the UNESCO CoMIT software with tsunamis generated by underwater earthquakes but not with volcanic eruptions, so any suggestions would be great.
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2$\begingroup$ I know a couple of studies which have used Volcflow (lmv.uca.fr/volcflow) to model volcanogenic tsunamis. But it's always tsunamis triggered by mass wasting processes (i.e., a flank collapse or a PDC entering the sea), not tsunamis generated by a submarine explosion. But maybe you could adapt the code to cover such case (the software is written in Matlab). $\endgroup$– Jean-Marie PrivalCommented Jul 20, 2023 at 20:05
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$\begingroup$ Thank you much @Jean-MariePrival $\endgroup$– MiguelCommented Jul 21, 2023 at 18:37
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Tsunamis are shallow waves in the sense that the tsunamis have wavelengths that typically exceeds hundreds of kilometers. This is far greater than the depth any of the oceans. This means that tsunamis "feel" the bottom of the ocean, regardless of the depth of ocean water. The velocity of a shallow wave is $v\approx\sqrt{g d}$ where $g$ is the local acceleration due to gravitation (including fictitious centrifugal acceleration; $9.80665\,\text{m}/\text{s}^2$ is a reasonable worldwide approximation) and $d$ is the local depth.
You will need a model of ocean depth as a function of location, the more detailed the better.
answered Jul 21, 2023 at 5:59