Effects of the Rupture Velocity of Fault Motion, Ocean Current and Initial Sea Level on the Transoceanic Propagation of Tsunami

Abstract

Numerical simulation of tsunami is an effective method to reproduce what has occurred in the past and to predict future events for many tsunami-related research issues including warning systems. However, some real phenomena have not been fully integrated into numerical simulations for transoceanic tsunamis such as fault dynamics of rupture velocity, ocean currents, and the initial sea level. Considering the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami event, this study evaluates the consequences of rupture velocity. Subsequently, numerical experiments were conducted to normalize the effects as represented by non-dimensional parameters. The rupture velocity, ocean current, and initial sea level were simplified to be uniform and common among simulations. Results of the experiment show that the sea depth along the propagation direction, distance from the tsunami source, rupture velocity, and initial sea level impart some considerable effects on a tsunami's arrival time and wave height. Nevertheless, ocean currents have almost no importance for the arrival time or wave height of oceanic propagation of tsunamis.