:thumbsup:Originally posted by: Mday
what determines the speed:
initial force of the earthquake (dependent on magnitude obviously)
the amount of water available
the surrounding geography
surface winds (at water surface) *
existing waves *
the geography as the wave propogates
* these can be negligible with respect to tsunamis because they are of LARGER magnitudes. of course if there's a huge storm the wave can be affected and vice versa.
I would not equate them to any bomb since a bomb will do equal damage from ground zero while a wave takes on characteristics given the terrain it travels across the water. not to mention the tsunami can pick up an island and leave much of it intact and unharmed while a bomb with equal magnitude will wipe it out. what you can equate is the force of the earthquake to a bomb set off at the epicenter.
tsunamis have much higher dependence on fluid dynamics than a bomb even though air is considered a fluid.
The magnitude may or may not. Once a certain magnitude is reached, the speed near to the source will be the speed of sound (the limiting speed). At higher magnitudes, then, the speed cannot increase so the velocity will be unaffected. At lower magnitudes, the velocity will be less.Originally posted by: damonpip
Are you certain that the force of the earthquake has an effect on the speed of the tsunami? I thought that the speed was only a function of the water depth and gravity.
Yeah, I think you're right. I think I'm just thinking about this too hard when I could just solve the equations and figure it out. But this week is my vacation from school-related things for once, so I'll have to get back to you on that one.Originally posted by: TK
Cyclo Wizard - you refer to the speed of a disturbance from an impulse in a medium (water) as slowing per 1/r^2, but then you say that sound travels the same way (I think). But sound does not slow down, it just gets weaker with distance. This is part of my problem! The magnitude of the impulse that causes sound does not affect the velocity of the sound wave - just it's strength. So what is different about the "impulse" wave (and what is that wave?) that determines some speed, (speed of impulse? - magnitude of impulse? - both? - other?)
Any good books on the subject?
Thanks so far.
TK