Globally Scattered 2011 Tohoku Tsunami Waves From a Seafloor Sensor Array in the Northeast Pacific Ocean
Modeling of tsunami wave propagation for forecasting focuses on the arrival time and amplitude of the earliest tsunami waves reaching coastlines. The complex later tsunami wavefield, in which scattering is predominant, poses additional hazards due to possible constructive interference of coherent pa...
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American Geophysical Union
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ftcaltechauth:oai:authors.library.caltech.edu:106372 2023-05-15T13:36:58+02:00 Globally Scattered 2011 Tohoku Tsunami Waves From a Seafloor Sensor Array in the Northeast Pacific Ocean Kohler, Monica D. Bowden, Daniel C. Ampuero, Jean-Paul Shi, Jian 2020-11 application/pdf https://authors.library.caltech.edu/106372/ https://authors.library.caltech.edu/106372/7/2020JB020221.pdf https://authors.library.caltech.edu/106372/9/jgrb54520-sup-0001-2020jb020221-si.pdf https://authors.library.caltech.edu/106372/10/jgrb54520-sup-0002-2020jb020221-ts01.pdf https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20201102-072020996 en eng American Geophysical Union https://authors.library.caltech.edu/106372/7/2020JB020221.pdf https://authors.library.caltech.edu/106372/9/jgrb54520-sup-0001-2020jb020221-si.pdf https://authors.library.caltech.edu/106372/10/jgrb54520-sup-0002-2020jb020221-ts01.pdf Kohler, Monica D. and Bowden, Daniel C. and Ampuero, Jean-Paul and Shi, Jian (2020) Globally Scattered 2011 Tohoku Tsunami Waves From a Seafloor Sensor Array in the Northeast Pacific Ocean. Journal of Geophysical Research. Solid Earth, 125 (11). Art. No. e2020JB020221. ISSN 2169-9313. doi:10.1029/2020jb020221. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20201102-072020996 <https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20201102-072020996> other Article PeerReviewed 2020 ftcaltechauth https://doi.org/10.1029/2020jb020221 2021-11-18T19:01:28Z Modeling of tsunami wave propagation for forecasting focuses on the arrival time and amplitude of the earliest tsunami waves reaching coastlines. The complex later tsunami wavefield, in which scattering is predominant, poses additional hazards due to possible constructive interference of coherent packets of wave energy. However, almost no data sets exist to characterize the geographical sources and temporal evolution of the scattered waves. Here we show how recordings of the 2011 Tohoku tsunami by an array of pressure gauge sensors in the northeastern Pacific Ocean reveal coherent waves that are produced by scattering from distant coastlines including South America and Antarctica, as well as multiple seafloor fracture zones, ridges, and island chains. Multiple signal classification analysis and backward propagation ray tracing provide tight constraints on the origin of each scattered phase and resolve simultaneous wave arrivals from different scatterers. Incoming waves from constant back azimuths occur over time durations of several hours, revealing the time persistence of specific geographical scatterers. The results can advance numerical predictions of tsunami wave impact because they provide direct evidence for the necessity of incorporating both local and distant bathymetry over a range of length scales and for long time durations, to account for the azimuthal dependence of scatterer strength. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctica Caltech Authors (California Institute of Technology) Pacific Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth 125 11 |
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Open Polar |
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Caltech Authors (California Institute of Technology) |
op_collection_id |
ftcaltechauth |
language |
English |
description |
Modeling of tsunami wave propagation for forecasting focuses on the arrival time and amplitude of the earliest tsunami waves reaching coastlines. The complex later tsunami wavefield, in which scattering is predominant, poses additional hazards due to possible constructive interference of coherent packets of wave energy. However, almost no data sets exist to characterize the geographical sources and temporal evolution of the scattered waves. Here we show how recordings of the 2011 Tohoku tsunami by an array of pressure gauge sensors in the northeastern Pacific Ocean reveal coherent waves that are produced by scattering from distant coastlines including South America and Antarctica, as well as multiple seafloor fracture zones, ridges, and island chains. Multiple signal classification analysis and backward propagation ray tracing provide tight constraints on the origin of each scattered phase and resolve simultaneous wave arrivals from different scatterers. Incoming waves from constant back azimuths occur over time durations of several hours, revealing the time persistence of specific geographical scatterers. The results can advance numerical predictions of tsunami wave impact because they provide direct evidence for the necessity of incorporating both local and distant bathymetry over a range of length scales and for long time durations, to account for the azimuthal dependence of scatterer strength. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Kohler, Monica D. Bowden, Daniel C. Ampuero, Jean-Paul Shi, Jian |
spellingShingle |
Kohler, Monica D. Bowden, Daniel C. Ampuero, Jean-Paul Shi, Jian Globally Scattered 2011 Tohoku Tsunami Waves From a Seafloor Sensor Array in the Northeast Pacific Ocean |
author_facet |
Kohler, Monica D. Bowden, Daniel C. Ampuero, Jean-Paul Shi, Jian |
author_sort |
Kohler, Monica D. |
title |
Globally Scattered 2011 Tohoku Tsunami Waves From a Seafloor Sensor Array in the Northeast Pacific Ocean |
title_short |
Globally Scattered 2011 Tohoku Tsunami Waves From a Seafloor Sensor Array in the Northeast Pacific Ocean |
title_full |
Globally Scattered 2011 Tohoku Tsunami Waves From a Seafloor Sensor Array in the Northeast Pacific Ocean |
title_fullStr |
Globally Scattered 2011 Tohoku Tsunami Waves From a Seafloor Sensor Array in the Northeast Pacific Ocean |
title_full_unstemmed |
Globally Scattered 2011 Tohoku Tsunami Waves From a Seafloor Sensor Array in the Northeast Pacific Ocean |
title_sort |
globally scattered 2011 tohoku tsunami waves from a seafloor sensor array in the northeast pacific ocean |
publisher |
American Geophysical Union |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://authors.library.caltech.edu/106372/ https://authors.library.caltech.edu/106372/7/2020JB020221.pdf https://authors.library.caltech.edu/106372/9/jgrb54520-sup-0001-2020jb020221-si.pdf https://authors.library.caltech.edu/106372/10/jgrb54520-sup-0002-2020jb020221-ts01.pdf https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20201102-072020996 |
geographic |
Pacific |
geographic_facet |
Pacific |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctica |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctica |
op_relation |
https://authors.library.caltech.edu/106372/7/2020JB020221.pdf https://authors.library.caltech.edu/106372/9/jgrb54520-sup-0001-2020jb020221-si.pdf https://authors.library.caltech.edu/106372/10/jgrb54520-sup-0002-2020jb020221-ts01.pdf Kohler, Monica D. and Bowden, Daniel C. and Ampuero, Jean-Paul and Shi, Jian (2020) Globally Scattered 2011 Tohoku Tsunami Waves From a Seafloor Sensor Array in the Northeast Pacific Ocean. Journal of Geophysical Research. Solid Earth, 125 (11). Art. No. e2020JB020221. ISSN 2169-9313. doi:10.1029/2020jb020221. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20201102-072020996 <https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20201102-072020996> |
op_rights |
other |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1029/2020jb020221 |
container_title |
Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth |
container_volume |
125 |
container_issue |
11 |
_version_ |
1766086254227619840 |