Air-burst Generated Tsunamis

摘要

This paper examines the questions of whether smaller asteroids that burst inthe air over water can generate tsunamis that could pose a threat to distantlocations. Such air burst-generated tsunamis are qualitatively different thanthe more frequently studied earthquake-generated tsunamis, and differ as wellfrom impact asteroids. Numerical simulations are presented using the shallowwater equations in several settings, demonstrating very little tsunami threatfrom this scenario. A model problem with an explicit solution that demonstratesand explains the same phenomena found in the computations is analyzed. Wediscuss the question of whether compressibility and dispersion are importanteffects that should be included, and show results from a more sophisticatedmodel problem using the linearized Euler equations that begins to addressesthis.