Gravity waves and acoustic waves generated by

submarine earthquakes
TOKUO YAMAMOTO
Ocean Engineering Division, Rosenstiel School of Marine and A tmospheric Science,
University of MiamL Miami, Florida 33149
The time harmonic problem of the propagation of gravity waves and acoustic waves in the ocean by
vertical oscillation of a block of ocean floor is treated analytically. It is found that the evanescent
modes of gravity waves change into the propagating modes of acoustic waves at frequencies above the
cut-off frequencies. Therefore, the common assumption of an incompressible ocean water invites
serious errors in the pressures and the tsunami waves near the source. From the propagating acoustic
wave spectra, it is shown that the size and the amplitude of the oscillating source can be determined
far in advance of tsunami arrival.

INTRODUCTION
The problem of the generation and the propagation of
tsunamis is important and thus has been investigated by
many engineers and geophysicists. Usually a large section of
ocean floor moves and vibrates for several minutes and
generates tsunamis, a Because the high frequency components of the ground motion is not important for the tsunamis
far from the source, only the non-oscillatory component of
the ground motion has been considered in the analysis of
tsunami generation. Usually a sudden uprise of a block of
ocean floor is used as the source (e.g. Sells,6 Kajiura, 4
Hammack2). Consequently, the high frequency components
of the ground motion has been ignored in consideration of
tsunamis.
At the recent conference on tsunamis, a however, it was
recognized that such high frequency components may be
important with regard to the tsunamis near the source, as
well as to the tsunami warnings for the locations far from
the source. For this reason, only the high frequency components of the ground motion are considered here.
The problem of propagation of gravity and acoustic
waves in a layer of water with a constant depth and a free
surface by a harmonic vertical oscillation of a block of rigid
bottom is considered in this paper. As the block of bottom
oscillates vertically the disturbances in the forms of displacement and pressure propagate through the fluid. At the
free surface, the disturbances form surface waves, the dispersions of which are uniquely governed by the free surface
boundary condition which is a function of the acceleration
of gravity, the water depth and the frequency of oscillation.
When surface water waves are considered, the fluid
medium is usually treated as an incompressible and irrotational fluid. Under this assumption, the analytical solution
which satisfies the free surface boundary condition is given
as a sum of only one propagating mode and an infinite
number of evanescent modes near the disturbance for a
given frequency of oscillation. 1 However, as water is actually
compressible, an otherwise non-propagating evanescent
mode changes to a propagating mode at a frequency higher
than a cut-off frequency as will be shown in this paper. In
other words, there can be more than one propagating surface waves for a given frequency. This peculiar phenomenon
0261-7277/82/020075-0852.00
1982 C M L P u b l i c a t i o n s

is uniquely governed by a nondimensional number gh/c 2,

in addition to the Froude number, c02h/g, in which g is the
acceleration of gravity, h is the water depth, c is the speed
of sound in fluid, co is the angular frequency of oscillation.
This may have a practical significance with regard to the
near field tsunamis and the tsunami warnings. This paper
presents a complete mathematical derivation of the solution.

THEORETICAL ANALYSIS

Basic assumptions and governing equation

We take a system of Cartesian coordinates with the
origin at the mid-point of the block of the ocean floor, the
x-axis in a horizontal direction parallel to the sea floor, and
the y-axis vertically upward as shown in Fig. 1. The total
width of the block is 2b and the length of the block is
assumed to be infinitely long. The ocean has a constant
depth h. We assume that the block is oscillating vertically at
a small amplitude [o and at an angular frequency co so that
the displacement of the ocean floor in the y-direction is
given by

~ (x, t) = ~oH (b 2 -- x 2) exp(kot)

(1)

where H represents the Heavyside step function.

We assume that the undisturbed density Po and the bulk
modulus Ko of the fluid are constant throughout the fluid
region. The linearized equation for the displacement potential , defining displacements (a~b/ax, a~b/ay), in a slightly

2b

.I

[Tz Tr/-. ~rr , q 7 7 , 1

Figure 1.

Definition of problem

SoilDynamicsandEarthquakeEngineering, 1982, Vol. 1, No. 2

75

Gravity waves and acoustic waves generated by submarine earthquakes: T. Yamamoto

compressible fluid is (e.g. Lamb, s StoneleyT);

1 b2
v2 -

e 2 at 2

(2)

= - - F ( w , h)

where c is sound speed and is given by

c = (Ko/Po)In

=h

(3)

At the free surface y = h, if the surface displacement is

~7, we have the kinematic boundary condition

rl = (3/ay)y=a

(4)

The general solution for the differential equation (13) is

given by

F(w,y) = Cffw) exp(py) + C2(w) exp(--#y)

(5)

The combined free surface boundary condition is, therefore, given by

3 02
g ~ y + ~-~= 0, y = h

(.0 2

(x, y, t) = f (x, y) exp(kot)

la2= w2

~ (Re0a)/> 0)

2to .

sin wb

(1 8)

law

(6)

(7)

(17)

Substituting equation (16) into the boundary conditions

(14) and (15), we find
C1 -- (72 = - -

We only consider time harmonic problems so that the displacement potential may be expressed by

(16)

where

and the dynamic boundary condition from Bernoulli's

equation

gO + (02/Ot2)y=a ----0

(15)

(la-~)exp(ph)Cl-(la+~21exp(-lah)C2=Og !

(19)

The solution of simultaneous equations (18) and (19) is

t2 q_ 6o2/g

In terms of the function f(x,y), the governing equation

(2) is given as

law(/a sinhlah -- co2/g cosh/.th)

to exp(--lah) sin wb

O)2

vV= --~f

(20)

(8)

The bottom boundary condition requires that the fluid

vertical displacement 3/~y must be given by the equation
(1) so that

]2 -- (.,o2/g
C2

--

law(/.t sinhlah -- 6o2/g coshph)

to e x p ~ h ) sin wb

(21)
The function F(w,y) is obtained as

(bf)y
= t H=o( b 2 - x 2 ) ~ y

(9)

The combined free surface condition (6) may be given in

terms o f f ( x , y ) by

3f

co2

by

to sin wb{(~ + ~2/g) exp [la(y -- h)]

+ (la _ 6o2/g) exp [--la(y -- h)]}

F(w,y) - - -

law(6o2/g cosh~th -- la sinhlah)

(22)

------f--

O(y-- h)

(10)
Through the Fourier inverse transformation defined by
equation (12), we obtain the functionf(x,y) as

Fourier wave number transformation

oo

Since the bottom boundary condition (9) is inhomogeneous, it is difficult to solve the problem in the space
domain. However, the boundary condition becomes homogeneous in the wave number domain. Thus, the Fourier
wave number transformation is used to solve the problem.
Let F(w,y) be the Fourier transform o f f ( x , y ) so that

to r

f ( x , y ) = i2-~ )

la coshla(y --h) + co2/g sinhla(y --h)

law(6o2/gcoshph --la sinhph)

--o

[exp{iw(x + b)} -- exp{--iw(x -- b)}] dw

(23)
If we introduce the Green's function G(t,y) defined by

F(w,y)= i

exp(--iwx)f(x,y)dx

(11)

G(t,y)

--oo

f(x,y) = ~

o~

exp(iwx)F(w,y) dw

p coshp(y - h) + w2/g. sinhla(y --h)

laW(co2/g coshlah -- la sinhlah)

x exp(iw~) dw

(12)

(24)

the function f (x, y) can be rewritten by

to
[G(x
f ( x , y ) = -i2rr

The governing equation (8) and the boundary conditions

(9) and (10) are then written for F(w,y) as
(6O2)

a2F

~ - - - w z F + - -3y
= 02

(131

+ b,y)

-- G(x -- b,y)]

(25)

Equation (25) indicates that the flow generated by the

motion of a block of ocean floor is equivalent to the flow

76 SoiI Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, 1982, Vol. 1, No. 2

Gravity waves and acoustic waves generated by submarine earthquakes: T. Yamamoto

by two line sources given by equations (24) located at the
edges of the block x = +--b.
To obtain f ( x , y) in an eplicit form, the integration in
equation (24) must be evaluated by the method of complex integration in the complex wave number plane. Let us
consider the following integration with the complex variable,
w = k + i~ (k, k are real positive numbers) in the w-plane:
I"
Iw = l g ( w )

(26)

dw

in which g(w) is the integrand of equation (24).

The singular points of g(w) are found by setting the
denominator ofg(w) equal to zero as,

w(Tcosh h- si h h)
0,) 2

= 0

(27)

The roots are from,

w=0
/a = 0

(28)

where ks, ko, kn and 3,n are real positive and given by
ks = ~ / c

ko = (P~ + k2s)w2
kn

~___ (/,,-2

2",1/2

v's -- tzn) , ks >/an

.

(30)

~. = (u~ - k b 1/2, /a. > ks

k s is the wave number of sound wave in an unbounded

medium, k0 is the wave number of propagating gravity
water waves and is larger compared to the wave number/ao
for an incompressible fluid, kn'S are the attenuation coefficients of the evanescent modes in a compressible fluid
which are smaller compared to /an'S, the incompressible
values. When the wave number k s of the sound becomes
larger than the incompressible attenuation coefficient/a n ,
the evanescent mode of gravity water waves converts into
a propagating mode of acoustic waves with wave number kn.
The contours of the integration (2.26) are taken as semicircles with indentations around singular points, in the
upper half of the w-plane for ~ > 0 as sketched in Fig. 2,
and in the lower half for ~ < 0. The integration (26) is
rewritten as

6o2 = g/a tanh/ah

The last equation of (28) has the solutions/a = +/a0 and
/a = + i/an (n = 1, 2 , . . . ) (lao,/an are real positive) such that

(w) dw +

g(w) dw + ~

C_ko

g(w) dw

n=l

C_k n

co2 = g/ao tanh/ao h

(2.29)

~ 2 = - - g / a n tanpnh

/ao and/an'S are the wave number of the propagating mode

and the attenuation coefficients of the evanescent modes
of water waves in an incompressible fluid. Therefore, the
poles of g(w) are determined from equations (28) and
shown in Fig. 2. They are:

w=O,+-ks,+-ko, + kn,+-ik"

+ f e w> w+
c-k~
+ ~.

f g(w)dw
Co

ck~

g(w) dw +

g(w) dw

Ckn

C_ ko

Applying Couchy's residue theorem, the contour integral

(31) is given as

(n= 1,2 . . . . )

I w=+27ri

~,
n =N+

iA

?.., / \

G(~,y)= + 27ri ~
- k . -k,

-k s

ks

k',

(32)

ko

-tim
-ikn+ ,

R(+ iXn)

n=N+l

>k
kn

R(+-ikn)
1

The upper sign of the double sign in equation (32) is for

> 0 and the lower sign for ~ < 0. As can be seen from
equation (31), the part of the first term of (31) along
the k-axis from --R to R is the same as the integration
(26), provided that the radius R is extended to infinity
and that the radii r are reduced to zero. Therefore, the
Green's function F ( ~ , y ) defined by equation (24) can be
obtained from the following equation

-k o

(31)

n=l

r~O

R~

Iff
+

lCR

C_ks

+ ~"

ff
+

n= 0

C_kn

CO

-ikn+ 2
-iXn+ 3

+
~

Figure 2.

Singular points and integral contours

(33)
n=O

~s
The integration along the large semi-circle CR from R to
--R vanishes as R tends to infinity because,

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77

Gravity waves and acoustic waves generated by submarine earthquakes: T. Yamamoto

The upper signs of the double signs in equation (37) are
for x > b and the lower signs for x < -- b.
For the range of Ix I < b,

f exp(iw~) dw
W 2

R..-..~,.~

CR

CR
f

~< lim
R--~

R dO
rr
exp(20) ~<R~Rlim
--= 0

f(x,y)

4~o

/ao coskob cosh/a0y exp(--ik0 Ix l)

k~(2/aoh + sinh 2/aoh)

N ~an cosknb cos/any exp(--ikolx ])

- .=1Z

The integrations along the indentations of small semi-circles

at singular points on the k-axis are obtained by the residue
theorem as

k .(Zu.h +

lim

+
Co

Lf)

= r- 7ri R (0) + R ~

(+ kn)

n=O

(34)

The residues are obtained as,

2/ao exp (+ ikoOcosh/aoY
R (-+ ko) = --

k2(2/ao h + sinh 2/aoh)

2/an exp(-+ iknOcOs/a n h

R(+kn)=--

( n = 1,2 . . . . N )

k2n(2/an h + sin 2/an h) '

k s cos ksCV - h) + 6o2/g sin ksO' -- h)

R(O)

R (+ iXn)

ks(w2/g cosksh + ks sin ksh)

2/an exp(7- 3,~) cos/any

X~n(2/anh + sin2/anh) , (n = N +

1. . . . )

(35)
Substituting the results of the calculations given by
equations (35) into equation (33), the Green's function
G(~,y) is obtained in the following form:
4/ao cosh/aoy cosko~
ko~(2/aoh + sinh 2/aoh)
N 4/an COS/any coskn~

cos ks(Y -- h) + (co2/gks) sin ks(Y -- h)

The solutions (37) and (38) of f ( x , y ) satisfy the wave
equation (8) and the boundary conditions (9) and (10).
The displacement potential is obtained in equation (7)
with the amplitude functionf(x,y)evaluated in the above.
The first terms on the righthand sides of equations
(37) and (38) represent the propagating gravity wave
mode. The second and third terms represents the acoustic
wave modes. The second terms represent the propagating
acoustic wave modes which can exist only when the frequency is higher than certain values called cut-off frequencies which depend on the water depth. The third terms
represent the evanescent modes which exist near the disturbance source. The amplitudes of the evanescent modes
decay exponentially with the horizontal distance from the
source. The fourth term in equation (38) represents the
surge mode which exists only above the disturbance source
Ixl<b.

DISPERSION OF WAVES

-- n=l
~ k2n(2/anh + sin 2/anh)
~,
/.

cosh oh --/ah (~/o2h) sinh ph = 0,

4/an cos/any exp(Z- ~n~ )

or

n=N+ l ~2(2/anh + sin 2/anh)

6o2h

k s cos ks(Y --h) + (w2/g) sin ks(v - - h )

-~

~/g)

~os-k~+k~sinkq~hj

} (36)

The upper signs of the double signs are for ~ > 0 and the
lower for ~ < 0 as before.
The function f ( x , y ) is now obtained from equation
(25) with the Green's function (36). The evaluation
o f f must be made for the three ranges o f x ; x > b , Ix [ < b ,
and x < - - b .
For the range of I x l > b , noting that
cos ko~ = Re [exp(--ikoO] and so on,
/ao sin kob cosh/aoy exp [--i(kox--7r/2)]
f ( x , y ) = + 4~o
k2(2/aoh + sinh 2/aoh )

N /an sinknb cS/anY exp [--i(kox--zr/2)]

4" n=lZ

k2n(2/anh + sin 2/anh)

-~ ~, /an sinh~"bcs/a"yexp(+X"x) t
n=N+l
~2n~5+~2~nh)
]

~2(2/anh + sin 2/anh)

The dispersion relation of gravity waves and acoustic waves

is given by equation (28) which is rewritten in terms of
non-dimensional parameters as

G(~,y) = +-Tri

2u.h)

/an exp(-- ~n b) cos/any cosh ~n X

n:N+l
~
r-*0

sin

(37)

- / a h tanh/ah

(39)

where

/a~h2 = + l w2hZ . .~2hg. . gh2

(40)

As seen in equations (39) and (40), for a given wave frequency w, the dispersions of gravity waves and acoustic
waves are governed by two non-dimensional parameters
o2h/g and gh/c 2. The dimensionless parameter 6o2h/g is the
Foude number and rewritten as hZ/(gh/o2). Since gh/w 2 is
proportional to the wavelength of surface gravity waves,
the Froude number co2h/g may be interpreted as the square
of the ratio of the water depth to the wave length of
surface gravity waves. The dimensionless parameter gh/c 2
is the square of the ratio of the phase velocity of surface
gravity waves to the velocity of acceleration waves.
Two limiting cases are derived from the general dispersion relation (39). For the case of an incompressible fluid,
gh/c 2 -~ O,/ah ~ wh, only the gravity wave mode exists. The

78 Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, 1982, Vol. 1, No. 2

Gravity waves and acoustic waves generated by submarine earthquakes: T. Yamamoto

I.0

dispersion relation (39) coincides with the familiar dispersion relation of the gravity waves in an incompressible fluid
for this case,
W2h
-=
g

wh tanh wh

(4

Group

In consideration
of acoustic wave propagation in oceans,
the gravity effect is neglected, or g/w2h + 0. For this case
ph + i [02h2/c2 - (wh)ll
cos [W2h2/c2 - (wh)2]2 = 0

.6

.6

.4

.2

Vcloclty

I du
Fair

(3.4)

or
wJr+2h2,c2-((~j]12,

n=1,2,...

(43)

Figure 4.

...

n = 1,2,3

0n=-T-h3
The dispersion relations, wh/c versus kh, for the gravity
waves and the acoustic waves are shown in Fig. 3 for the
case of dgh/c = 0.15 which corresponds to h = 4.5 km. As
shown in Fig. 3, at low frequencies, wh/c < 1, only gravity
waves can propagate. However, acoustic waves start to
propagate in addition to gravity waves at high frequencies,
oh/c > 1.6.
For the case of h = 4.5 km, the critical frequency is
0.0777 Hz. The assumption of incompressible fluid results
in a longer wave length than the real wave length of the
gravity wave and permits no propagating acoustic waves.
The assumption of no gravitational effect gives lower cutoff frequencies
of acoustic waves compared to a real
situation.
By definition, the group velocity of a propagating wave
is given by

/
1/l
dw

c,=

dk

The group velocities

can be obtained from
given in Fig. 3. The
quencies, C,/c versus

PROPAGATION

OF WAVE ENERGY

As discussed in the previous section, gravity waves and

acoustic waves are generated in the ocean by vibrations of
the ocean bottom and propagate at different group velocities. The wave energy is stored in three forms, the elastic
potential energy, E, the kinetic, K, and the gravity potential
energy, V. Only the average values over time and space are
considered. Thus the average energy per unit volume of
water is considered.
The total energy e per unit volume is then
e=e+K+v
The elastic potential
by

(46)

energy E per unit volume is defined

TLh

e=-

I+

TLh SJI
0 0 0

*ii

pP)Q

dxdydt

(47)

p=-p$=p&$

(48)

The divergence, 9 - ii, of the displacement

by

vector is given

Kh

il is the displacement vector and - over2 designates d/dt = iw.

The dynamic pressure is given by

of Gph)12/c= 0.15 or h = 4.5 km. Gravity waves propagate slower compared to acoustic waves. At frequencies
higher than the cut-off frequency, e.g. 0.0777 Hz for
h = 4.5 km, more than one wave propagates at the same
frequency but at different wave lengths. As can be seen in
Fig. 4, both gravity waves and acoustic waves in the ocean
are highly dispersive.

0.15

C=

Group velocities versus frequency

(45)

of gravity waves and acoustic waves

the slopes of the dispersion diagrams
group velocities as functions of freah/c, are shown in Fig. 4 for the case

cub
t

As seen in equation (43), acoustic wave modes can propagate only at frequencies higher than cut-off frequencies, w,
(2n - 1) c

I
0

A-@

The wave equation (2) is used to derive equation (49).

Substituting equations (48) and (49) into (47) the elastic
potential energy is given as

A-Q

2n/w

I ,

cub
c

Figure 3.

Dispersion diagrams

1
e=---awk
4n2h
Since the displacement

s
0

2nlk

SI

f ;;

@2dy dx dt

(50)

02

potential

of a propagating

mode is

Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, 1982, Vol. I, No. 2

79

Gravity waves and acoustic wavesgenerated by submarine earthquakes: T. Yamamoto

harmonic in time and space which is given in the form of,
* exp [i(wt - kx)]

q5= +Q)

equation

IO-:

(51)
Gravity

(49) reduces to
e=-

Wave

&C=

Mode

+-

PO4

a)(v) dy

8hc2 s

0.15
= 2.0

(52)

From equation (2.37) the amplitude

gravity waves in the far field is given by

function

,o-:

for the

Potential

p. sink0 b coshp,y
@o(Y) = 4to

ki(2uoh + sinh 2uoh)

Kinrtic

04po sin2 kob

Similarly, the average elastic potential

n-th acoustic wave mode is given by
w4&, sin k, b

1
en = ,P.%

c2kz(2p,h

The average kinetic energy

(54)

(55)
10-5

per unit volume is defined

-4

lo

energy E, of the

(a > %)

+ sin 2&h)

3
E,C

hcZk~(2poh + sinh 2poh)

Energy

(53)

If equation (53) is substituted in equation (52) and the

integral is carried out, the average elastic potential energy
e. of gravity wave mode is given by
1
eo=ipt:

Energy

by
TLh

j(=-

;pq2 dy dx dt

TLh .
0

(56)

The square q2 of the magnitude

of velocity is given by

q2 = z q;

I
.I

Id6

Therefore the average kinetic energy

mode is given by

~~

(57)

for the gravity wave

1 2 W2(ki + pi) u. sin k. b

Ko=;Pgo
hki(2uoh + sinh 2unh)
Similarly, the average kinetic energy
wave mode is given by

K,

where n2 is the square of the amplitude

fluctuation and given by
Tj2= 7; + n: + 7; + . . .

(60)
of water surface

(61)

The amplitude nn of the surface fluctuation

due to the
n-th mode of waves are related to the amplitude function
%O) by
rln = $0)

.4

(62)

Therefore, the average gravity potential energy v. per unit

volume of the gravity wave mode is given by

Energy jiux versus frequency, gravity waves

vo = 2Pgt:

& sin k. b sinh2/*, h

hki(2uo h + sinh 2p. h)2

Similarly, the average gravity potential

acoustic wave mode is given by
v, = 2Pgt:

(59)

energy v per unit volume

v=GPg+

Figure 5.

(58)

for the n-th acoustic

1 2 w2(ki + pi) u,, sinknb

K, = TP,CO
hkz(2unh + sin 2unh)
The average gravity potential
of water is defined by

.3

cub

q; = a2(k:, + P;) %&A

80

I_/,
\

uf, sink,b

(63)

energy v, of the n-th

sinp,,h

hkz(2unh + sin 2p,h)2

(64)

The average energy e is transported at the group velocity

Cg. Therefore the energy flux is given by eC,. For the case
of (gh)/c = 0.15 and b/h = 2.0, each component
of
energy flux for the gravity wave mode is plotted versus
oh/c in Fig. 5. The energy flux is normalized by eoc in
which e, = ~pc2(~o/h)2 and the c is the sound velocity.
Each component
of energy flux for the acoustic wave
modes are plotted in Fig. 6. The cut-off frequency of the
first mode of acoustic waves is w1 = 0.488 rad/s. At the
frequency
lower than the cut-off frequency, only the
gravity waves propagate. Because some portion of gravity
wave energy is stored in the form of elastic potential energy,
the kinetic energy is always smaller than the gravity potential energy. In an incompressible fluid, the kinetic and the
gravity potential energy is always the same;an equi-partition
of energy. As seen in Fig. 5, the equi-partition
principle
holds at very low frequencies only.

Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, 1982, Vol. 1, No. 2

Gravity waves and acoustic waves generated by submarine earthquakes: T. Yamamoto

At frequencies above the cut-off frequencies con, the
n-th mode of acoustic waves starts to propagate. Although
small amounts of energy exist in the form of gravity potential energy, it is negligibly small compared to the kinetic
and the elastic potential energy components. Thus, the
equi-partition principle practically holds between the
kinetic and the elastic potential energy for acoustic waves.
For a given amplitude to of ground motion, the total
energy flux by acoustic waves is generally three orders of
magnitude larger than that by gravity water waves. In an
incompressible fluid, the acoustic waves can not propagate
but the energy is stored in the form of standing gravity
waves or the evanescence modes near the disturbance
source. Therefore, the common assumption of incompressible fluid over predicts the gravity wave energy spectra
near the source in calculations of the nearfield tsunami
generation.
The acoustic waves generated by the ground motion
propagates faster than the gravity waves and the energy
level is high. Therefore, the acoustic waves in water generated by the earthquakes may be used to estimate the size
and the magnitude to of the underwater ground motion by
the earthquake before the tsunami waves arrive at a location
far from the metacenter. This concept may be used to
develop a new tsunami warning system which can predict
the magnitude of tsunamis as well as the arrival time.

IO0.O

Wove

Modes

o.,o. . 2 . o
102
~Totol

(A-2)

Energy ( A - I )

Klnllic

and

=otentioI ( A - I
I

00

Figure 6.

I I II

II
i
I
i
m
|
m
I
I
|
II
II
|
m
I
m
m
i
l

I0.0

I|
II
II
II
I!
II
I|

##
sS

1.0

,,

Ill

0.01

I i
ii
i i

0.1

I I
I I
I I

t
t

I I

0.1

I I

h I

I I

1.0

IO.O

f (Hz)

Figure 7.

Bottom pressure versus frequency at x = 0

The pressure is normalized by a reference pressure P0.

(65)

PB/Po versus frequency is plotted in Fig. 7 for compressible

water c = 1400 m/s as well as for an incompressible fluid
c = =,. At frequencies lower than 0.2 Hz, the two cases
coincide because the water responds as an incompressible
fluid. As the frequency increases the compressibility becomes
important. At cut-off frequencies con (n = 1, 2, 3 . . . ) , the
acoustic waves form nodes at the bottom y = 0 and the
water column undergoes resonances and the bottom pressure
becomes infinity. Between cut-off frequencies, the acoustic
waves form anti-nodes at the bottom and the bottom
pressure becomes zero. If the water is assumed incompressible, the water behaves as a solid body and the bottom
pressure is equal to Po given by equation (65).
As demonstrated, the common assumption of incompressible water invites serious errors in calculations of the
near field waves generated by bottom vibration in the
ocean.

The high frequency components of the bottom motions by

submarine earthquakes are shown to be important in consideration of wave energy transport in the far field as well
as the wave field in the near field.
The common assumption that water is incompressible
invites serious errors in calculations of pressures and surface
waves near the disturbance source.
The acoustic waves in water generated by submarine
earthquakes may be used as tsunami warning signals at
distant locations from the source. It is shown theoretically
that the size and the magnitude of bottom vibrations can
be determined from the acoustic signals.

EoC

CONCLUSIONS

Elalltle(A-I

EC G

Po = phto6O 2

The waves near the disturbance source are also affected by

the compressibility of the water. As an example, the
pressure amplitude PB at the center of the block (x --- 0,
y = 0) is calculated from equation (38) for the case of
the water depth h = 300 m, the block width 2b = 3 kin.

I0 I

I I

PRESSURE AT BOTTOM
~ , C = ~
.......
C=1400 m~
h=300 m

NEAR FIELD WAVES

Acoustic

Energy flux versusfrequency, acoustic waves

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work is entirely sponsored by the National Science
Foundation through a Grant No. CEE-8104429. The author

Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, 1982, Vol. 1, No. 2

81

Gravity waves and acoustic waves generated by submarine earthquakes." T. Yamamoto

is grateful for the support. He thanks Dr B. Le Mehaute for
his valuable suggestions in developing this work. He also
wishes to thank Dr F. Tappert for encouraging a rigorous
formalism.

REFERENCES
1 Goda, Y. and Kikua, T. The generation of water waves with a
vertically oscillating flow at a channel bottom. TechnicalReport
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2 Hammack, J. L. A note on tsunamis: their generation and
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Mechanics 1973, 60, part 4,769

82

3 Hwang, L. S. and Lee, Y. K. Tsunamis, Proceedings of the

National Science Foundation Workshop, Seattle, Washington,
August, 1979
4 Kajiura, K. Tsunami source, energy and the directivity of wave
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5 Lamb, H. Hydrodynamics (6th ed.), Cambridge University Press,
1957
6 Sells, C. C. L. The effect of a sudden claange of shape of the
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258, 495
7 Stonely, R. The effect of the ocean on Rayleigh waves, Monthly
Notes Astronomical Society (Geophysics Supplement] 1926,
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8 Stonely, R. The propagation of tsunamis, Geophys. J. 1963, 8,
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Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, 1982, Vol. 1, No. 2