NASA study challenges long-held tsunami formation theory
April 27, 2017
A new NASA study is challenging a long-held theory that tsunamis form and acquire their energy mostly from vertical movement of the seafloor.
An undisputed fact was that most tsunamis result from a massive shifting of the seafloor—usually from the subduction, or sliding, of one tectonic plate under another during an earthquake. Experiments conducted in wave tanks in the 1970s demonstrated that vertical uplift of the tank bottom could generate tsunami-like waves. In the following decade, Japanese scientists simulated horizontal seafloor displacements in a wave tank and observed that the resulting energy was negligible. This led to the current widely held view that vertical movement of the seafloor is the primary factor in tsunami generation.
Read more at:
https://phys.org/news/2017-04-nasa-long-held-tsunami-formation-theory.html#jCp
