Page 1 of 1

Regarding the Canary Islands and mega tsunami

Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2011 6:45 pm
by Mister Nifty
As I understand it, the hydraulic quality of water is caused by it being almost virtually incompressible. This, in effect, creates a phenomenon where the force appled upon it travels horizonally in waves although the force might be vertical upon it. As the huge chunk of the Canary Island volcano slides into what I believe has been said to be four miles of the Atlantic ocean, this is going to cause a displacement of water, once again because it is virtually incompressible, to the extent it will splash upward and then fall back into the ocean. It is the weight of this displaced water falling back into the ocean that creates the energy wave traveling horizonally five hundred miles per hour as the whole ocean has been pushed over many hundreds of feet in this case.
Here is my question.
If the tsunami wave is moving horizonally from top to bottom, when it collides with the ocean bottom and, eventually, the continental shelf along the Eastern seaboard, won't this have a damming effect absorbing much of the energy which has been predicted to create tsunami waves of 150 to 200 feet tall?
If not, the thought of a 200 foot tall tsunami wave many miles in lenth is beyond comprehension. In other words, the fact the wave would continue coming in far exceeds the thought of the incredible height of it. And to think the wave before hitting would recede out into the ocean exposing the ocean floor that would be 200 feet in depth at that.
Anyway, I've been thinking about this lately. Why wouldn't the continental shelf absorb most of the energy?

Re: Regarding the Canary Islands and mega tsunami

Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 9:36 am
by theObeast
high impedance mismatch? It seems plausible that it might reflect some of the energy, but since the sound speed is much higher in rock than water AND rock is much denser than water, the impedance (scales with sqrt(density*bulk modulus)) of rock must be a great deal higher for rock than water, so not very much energy will be transferred.