In recent years, we know that gravity solitary waves have gradually become the research spots and aroused extensive attention; on the other hand, the fractional calculus have been applied to the biology, optics and other fields, and it also has attracted more and more attention. In the paper, by employing multi-scale analysis and perturbation methods, we derive a new modified Zakharov–Kuznetsov (mZK) equation to describe the propagation features of gravity solitary waves. Furthermore, based on semi-inverse and Agrawal methods, the integer-order mZK equation is converted into the time-fractional mZK equation. In the past, fractional calculus was rarely used in ocean and atmosphere studies. Now, the study on nonlinear fluctuations of the gravity solitary waves is a hot area of research by using fractional calculus. It has potential value for deep understanding of the real ocean–atmosphere. Furthermore, by virtue of the sech-tanh method, the analytical solution of the time-fractional mZK equation is obtained. Next, using the above analytical solution, a numerical solution of the time-fractional mZK equation is given by using radial basis function method. Finally, the effect of time-fractional order on the wave propagation is explained.

We develop a Lax–Wendroff scheme on time discretization procedure for finite volume weighted essentially non-oscillatory schemes, which is used to simulate hyperbolic conservation law. We put more focus on the implementation of one-dimensional and two-dimensional nonlinear systems of Euler functions. The scheme can keep avoiding the local characteristic decompositions for higher derivative terms in Taylor expansion, even omit partly procedure of the nonlinear weights. Extensive simulations are performed, which show that the fifth order finite volume WENO (Weighted Essentially Non-oscillatory) schemes based on Lax–Wendroff-type time discretization provide a higher accuracy order, non-oscillatory properties and more cost efficiency than WENO scheme based on Runge–Kutta time discretization for certain problems. Those conclusions almost agree with that of finite difference WENO schemes based on Lax–Wendroff time discretization for Euler system, while finite volume scheme has more flexible mesh structure, especially for unstructured meshes.