Numerical tsunami simulation including elastic loading and seawater density stratification

Systemic discrepancies between observed and modeled tsunami wave speeds were previously identified for two recent major tsunamis: the 2010 Maule and 2011 Tohoku events. To account for these discrepancies, we developed a numerical tsunami propagation code solving the shallow water equation and including the effects of elastic loading of the seafloor by the tsunami as well as a linear density profile in the seawater column. We show here that both effects are important to explain the commonly observed difference between observations and simulations. We conclude that the density variation in the seawater column affects the wave speed without changing the waveform, whereas the loading effect has an effect on the wave speed and the waveform showing a negative phase before the main arrival due to the depression of the seafloor surrounding the tsunami wave the combination of both effects is needed to achieve a better match between observations and simulations. Key Points There is a better agreement between observation and modeling The density stratification affects only traveltime The elastic loading affects traveltime and changes the wave form