PIMS-SFU Distinguished Speaker Series in Applied & Computational Mathematics Seminar: Randall LeVeque

A widespread approach for tsunami simulation is to model the ocean with the shallow water equations (SWE).  The steady-state ocean floor deformation that results from a seismic event is often used as the initial ocean surface profile for the SWE, taking advantage of the separation of the tsunami and seismic timescales when the event occurs far from the inundation area of interest.  This work focuses instead on tsunamis generated by near-field seismic events and the data that might be measured by proposed seafloor sensors for use in tsunami early warning, as part of a project to study the feasibility and utility of an offshore network of sensors on the Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ). The dynamic seismic/acoustic and tsunami waves are simulated by modeling the ground as an elastic solid that is coupled with an acoustic ocean layer.  A gravity term is added to the ocean layer in order to capture the tsunami (gravity waves) that are generated by the acoustic waves.  The AMRClaw and Geoclaw (www.clawpack.org) packages are used to simulate a two-dimensional vertical cross section, resembling  CSZ topography, in order to explore this approach.  This is joint work with Chris Vogl at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.