Ocean Waves: Half-a-Century of Discovery

While the nature of most ocean waves has long been known and their basic physics understood since the nineteenth century, intense study of ocean waves during the second half of the twentieth century has taken the subject from the realm of mathematical exercises to that of practical engineering. Modern understanding of the generation, propagation and interactions of ocean waves with each other and with oceanic features has advanced to a quantitative level offering predictive capacity. This paper presents a brief qualitative review of advances in knowledge of sound waves, wind waves, tsunamis, tides, internal waves and long-period vorticity waves. The review is aimed at non-specialists who may benefit from an overview of the current state of the subject and access to a bibliography of general-interest references. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Use of the mantle magnitudeM m for the reassessment of the moment of historical earthquakes

The mantle magnitudeM _m is used on a dataset of more than 180 wavetrains from 44 large shallow historical earthquakes to reassess their moments, which in many cases had been previously estimated only on the basis of the earthquake's rupture area. We provide 27 new or revised values ofM _o, based on the spectral amplitudes of surface waves recorded at a number of stations, principally Uppsala and Pasadena. Among them, and most significantly, we document a large low-frequency component to the source of the 1923 Kanto earthquake: the low-frequency seismic moment is 2.9×10²⁸ dyn-cm, in accord with geodetic observations. On the other hand, we revise downwards the seismic moment of the 1906 Ecuador event, which did not exceed 6×10²⁸ dyn-cm.Finally, the study of the 1960 Chilean and 1964 Alaskan earthquakes whose exceptionally large moments are properly retrieved throughM _m measurements, serves proof that this approach performs flawlessly even for the very greatest earthquakes, and is therefore successful in its goal to avoid the saturation effects plaguing any magnitude scale measured at a fixed period.     

Prime controls on Archaean–Palaeoproterozoic sedimentation: Change over time

Although the principle of uniformitarianism may be applied to the Precambrian sedimentary record as a whole, certain periods of the Archaean and Palaeoproterozoic witnessed a changing pattern of prime influences controlling the depositional systems. This paper examines the major controls on sedimentation systems and environments during the Archaean and Palaeoproterozoic within the broader perspective of Earth evolution. Earth's earliest sedimentary system (4.4?-3.7 Ga) was presumably comprised of deep oceanic realms and probably influenced primarily by bolide impacts, major tsunamis, localized traction and global contour current patterns, and bathymetry. As continental crust began to form, the impact-dominated, tsunami type sedimentation gave way to wider varieties of sedimentary environments, known from the oldest sedimentary records. During early continental crustal evolution (c. 3.7–2.7 Ga), sedimentation was essentially of greenstone-type. Volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks were the major components of the greenstone belts, associated with thin carbonates, stromatolitic evaporites, BIF, pelites and quartzites and lesser synorogenic turbidites, conglomerates and sandstones. Volcanism and active tectonism (reflecting dynamic depositional settings during island arc and proto-continental nucleus formation) were the predominant factors influencing sedimentation during this phase of Earth evolution. Transgressions and regressions under the combined influence of tectonics and eustasy are reflected in fining- and coarsening-upwards successions from the proto-cratonic settings; low freeboard enabled the transgression to affect large areas of the proto-cratons. As the earliest, relatively stable craton formed, through a combination of plate tectonic and mantle-thermal processes, continents and supercontinents with the potential for supercontinental cycles started to influence sedimentation strongly. Major controls on Neoarchaean–Palaeoproterozoic sedimentation systems (2.7–1.6 Ga) were provided by a combination of superplume events and plate tectonics. Two global-scale ‘superevents’ at c. 2.7 Ga and c. 2.2–1.8 Ga were accompanied by eustatic rise concomitant with peaks in crustal growth rates, and large epeiric seas developed. The operation of first-order controls leading to development of vast chemical sedimentary platforms in these epeiric seas and concomitant palaeo-atmospheric and palaeo-oceanic evolution combined to provide a second-order control on global sedimentary systems in the Neoarchaean–Palaeoproterozoic period. The supercontinental cycle had become well established by the end of the Palaeoproterozoic, with the existence of large cratons across broad spectrums of palaeolatitude enabling erg development. The entire spectrum of sedimentary systems and environments came into existence by c. 1.8 Ga, prime influences on sedimentation and depositional system possibly remaining essentially uniform thereafter.     

Numerical Simulation of the 1918 Puerto Rico Tsunami

The Caribbean Sea region is well known for its hurricanes, and less known for tsunamis. As part of its responsibilities in hazard assessment and mitigation, the U.S.A. Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the Puerto Rico Civil Defense, funded a pilot study to perform a numerical simulation of the 1918 Puerto Rico tsunami, one of the most deadly in the region. As part of the study a review has been made of the tectonic and tsunamigenic environment around Puerto Rico, the fault parameters for the 1918 event have been estimated, and a numerical simulation has been done using a tsunami propagation and runup model obtained through the Tsunami Inundation Modeling for Exchange (TIME) program. Model results have been compared with the observed runup values all along the west coast of Puerto Rico.     

基于数值模拟的渤海海域地震海啸危险性定量化研究

根据地震海啸产生的条件,结合渤海海域的地形特征、地质构造、地震学特征和历史地震及海啸记录对渤海海域潜在的地震海啸进行了数值模拟研究。分析了渤海可能引发地震海啸的震源区域,讨论了渤海发生海啸灾害的可能性。文中通过数值模拟再现了渤海历史上几次规模较大的地震事件可能引发的海啸情景,研究分析了可能的地震海啸在渤海及周边海域的传播过程及波动特征.地震海啸传播模型采用基于四叉树原理的自适应网格加密技术,有效解决了局部分辨率与计算效率之间的矛盾。数值计算包括地震海啸产生及传播过程。利用该模型对渤海潜在的地震海啸进行了数值计算,基于数值计算结果定量阐述了渤海海域潜在地震海啸对渤海局部岸段及北黄海沿岸的影响,给出了渤海可能地震海啸危险性划分;研究结果将为我国海啸危险性分析和海啸预警技术研究工作提供技术支持。     

Digital mapping of coastal boulders – high-resolution data acquisition to infer past and recent transport dynamics

Coastal boulder fields provide clues to long-term frequency-magnitude patterns of coastal flooding events and have the potential to play an important role in coastal hazard assessment. Mapping boulders in the field is time and labour-intensive, and work on intertidal reef platforms, as in the present study, is physically challenging. By addressing coastal scientists who are not specialists in remote sensing, this contribution reports on the possibilities and limitations of digital applications in boulder mapping in Eastern Samar, Philippines, where recent supertyphoons Haiyan and Hagupit induced high waves, coastal flooding and boulder transport. It is demonstrated how satellite imagery of sub-metre resolution (from Pléiades and WorldView-3 imagery) enables efficient analysis of transport vectors and distances of larger boulders, reflecting variation in latitudes of both typhoon tracks and approaching angles of typhoon-generated waves. During the investigated events, boulders with a-axes of up to 8 m were clearly identified to have been shifted for up to 32 m, mostly along the seaward margin of the boulder field. It is, however, hard to keep track of smaller boulders, and the length of a-axes and b-axes including their orientation is often impossible to map with sufficient accuracy. Orthophotographs and digital surface models created through the application of an unmanned aerial vehicle and the ‘Structure from Motion’ technique provide ultra-high-resolution data, and have the potential to not only improve the results of satellite image analysis, but also those from field mapping and may significantly reduce overall time in the field. Orthophotographs permit unequivocal mapping of a-axes and b-axes including their orientation, while precise values for c-axes can be derived from the respective digital surface models. Volume of boulders is best inferred from boulder-specific Structure from Motion-based three-dimensional models. Battery power, flight speed and altitude determine the limits of the area covered, while patches shielded by the boulders are difficult to resolve. For some tasks, field mapping remains mandatory and cannot be replaced by currently available remote sensing tools: for example, sampling for rock type, density and age dating, recording of lithological separation of boulders from the underlying geological unit and of geomorphic features on a millimetre to decimetre-scale, or documentation of fine-grained sediment transport in between the boulders in supratidal settings. In terms of future events, the digital products presented here will provide a valuable reference to track boulder transport on a centimetre to decimetre-scale and to better understand the hydrodynamics of extreme-wave events on a fringing reef coastline.     

Mathematical modelling of volcanic tsunamis

The height of widespread tsunami runup about the Bay of Plenty from various volcanic scenarios involving eruptions at White Island is shown to be insignificant in all cases considered, except for Krakatoa‐type explosions. The problem of localised inundation remains unanswered. Some definitions describing volcanic tsunami risk, introduced recently by J. Latter (Bulletin volcanologique 1982), are briefly mentioned. All numerical calculations assumed cylindrical symmetry and used a flux‐corrected Lax‐Wendroff algorithm to solve the modified shallow water equations of Peregrine.     

Volcanic tsunamis and prehistoric cultural transitions in Cook Inlet,Alaska

The 1883 eruption of Augustine Volcano produced a tsunami when a debris avalanche traveled into the waters of Cook Inlet. Older debris avalanches and coeval paleotsunami deposits from sites around Cook Inlet record several older volcanic tsunamis. A debris avalanche into the sea on the west side of Augustine Island ca. 450 years ago produced a wave that affected areas 17 m above high tide on Augustine Island. A large volcanic tsunami was generated by a debris avalanche on the east side of Augustine Island ca. 1600 yr BP, and affected areas more than 7 m above high tide at distances of 80 km from the volcano on the Kenai Peninsula. A tsunami deposit dated to ca. 3600 yr BP is tentatively correlated with a southward directed collapse of the summit of Redoubt Volcano, although little is known about the magnitude of the tsunami. The 1600 yr BP tsunami from Augustine Volcano occurred about the same time as the collapse of the well-developed Kachemak culture in the southern Cook Inlet area, suggesting a link between volcanic tsunamis and prehistoric cultural changes in this region of Alaska.     

The hazards of eruptions through lakes and seawater

Eruptions through crater lakes or shallow seawater, referred to here as subaqueous eruptions, present hazards from hydromagmatic explosions, such as base surges, lahars, and tsunamis, which may not exist at volcanoes on dry land. We have systematically compiled information from eruptions through surface water in order to understand the circumstances under which these hazards occur and what disastrous effects they have caused in the past. Subaqueous eruptions represent only 8% of all recorded eruptions but have produced about 20% of all fatalities associated with volcanic activity in historical time. Excluding eruptions that have resulted in about a hundred deaths or less, lahars have killed people in the largest number of historical subaqueous eruptions (8), followed by pyroclastic flows (excluding base surges; 5) tsunamis (4), and base surges (2). Subaqueous eruptions have produced lahars primarily on high (>1000 m), steep-sided volcanoes containing small (<1 km diameter) crater lakes. Tsunamis and other water waves have caused death or destroyed man-made structures only at submarine volcanoes and at Lake Taal in the Philippines. In spite of evidence that magma–water mixing makes eruptions more explosive, such explosions and their associated base surges have caused fewer deaths, and have been implicated in fewer eruptions involving large numbers of fatalities than lahars and tsunamis. The latter hazards are more deadly because they travel much farther from a volcano and inundate coastal areas and stream valleys that tend to be densely settled.     

Synthetic tsunami mareograms for realistic oceanic models

We study how the tsunami mode is generated by a scaled double-couple seismic source, and how it propagates in realistic oceanic models. The method developed and used is the direct extension to tsunami waves propagating in multilayered oceanic media of the well-known Haskell method. The most intensive tsunamis may be expected from sources located within the crust in the deep-water parts of the ocean. The extension to laterally heterogeneous structures shows that, if the thickness of the ocean liquid layer diminishes, the maximum amplitude of the tsunami wave train increases.