Tsunamis and Earthquake Dynamics

David D. Oglesby, University of California, Riverside

Tsunamis are among the most destructive effects of earthquakes. The 2004 Indian
Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami emphasized the catastrophic effects that tsunamis
can have on an ocean-wide scale. It is thus very important to understand how
such tsunamis are generated. Conventional wisdom has long held that tsunamis,
which are long- wavelength, long-period phenomena, are insensitive to the
spatiotemporal details of earthquake rupture dynamics on the causative fault.
However, recent results from linked earthquake and tsunami models show that in
cases of complex fault geometry, the details of the stress pattern on a fault
can determine the path of the earthquake rupture, and in this way greatly
affect tsunami generation. The result can be significant effects in tsunami
runup, especially in the near field.