Global fast-traveling tsunamis by atmospheric pressure waves on the 2022 Tonga eruption
Tatsuya Kubota, Tatsuhiko Saito, Kiwamu Nishida
Abstract
the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano erupted, causing tsunamis all around the world; enigmatic tsunamis arrived much earlier by > ~2 hr than the conventionally predicted tsunami travel time.Here, we investigated the generation and propagation mechanisms of the tsunami "forerunner."The simulation found that fast-moving atmospheric pressure waves drove the leading sea height rise, while the scattering of the leading waves by small islands in the Pacific Ocean triggered the coda tsunamis.The tsunamis arriving later than the theoretically predicted time are composed of various waves generated both from traveling and static sources, which makes the tsunami much more complex and longer-lasting than earthquake-induced tsunamis. One-Sentence Summary:We discovered the generation mechanisms of the fast-traveling tsunamis by atmospheric pressure waves on the 2022 Tonga eruption.