A survey of strong high-frequency sea level oscillations along the US East Coast between 2006 and 2011

Pasquet, S.; Vilibić, Ivica; Šepić, Jadranka

doi:10.5194/nhess-13-473-2013

Cited by 28 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Ports, harbors, and bays may all have varying risk, and characterizing areas that may have extreme resonant mechanisms is also required. Places like Atlantic City, NJ, documented both in the present study and in others 7 , appear to have an especially large ocean response to MCS forcing. Along with numerical modeling, monitoring high-frequency atmospheric pressure anomalies in the interior of the continental U.S. and along the coastline is essential for early warning of potentially hazardous meteotsunamis.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 63%

“…Although not widely known, meteotsunamis along the east coast of North America are not rare events. There have been at least two documented meteotsunami events each year with sea level oscillations of 0.1–1 m along the U.S. East Coast from 2006 to early 2012, although the atmospheric forcing for these meteotsunamis has not been investigated in detail 7 8 . Mercer et al 2 describes two tropical cyclones, Helene (2000) and Jose (1999), which generated meteotsunamis (with wave heights up to 3m) as the low-pressure anomalies at the center of the tropical cyclones rapidly propagated across the Grand Banks.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Mesoscale convective system surface pressure anomalies responsible for meteotsunamis along the U.S. East Coast on June 13th, 2013

Wertman

Yablonsky

Shen

et al. 2014

Sci Rep

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Two destructive high-frequency sea level oscillation events occurred on June 13th, 2013 along the U.S. East Coast. Seafloor processes can be dismissed as the sources, as no concurrent offshore earthquakes or landslides were detected. Here, we present evidence that these tsunami-like events were generated by atmospheric mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) propagating from inland to offshore. The USArray Transportable Array inland and NOAA tide gauges along the coast recorded the pressure anomalies associated with the MCSs. Once offshore, the pressure anomalies generated shallow water waves, which were amplified by the resonance between the water column and atmospheric forcing. Analysis of the tidal data reveals that these waves reflected off the continental shelf break and reached the coast, where bathymetry and coastal geometry contributed to their hazard potential. This study demonstrates that monitoring MCS pressure anomalies in the interior of the U.S. provides important observations for early warnings of MCS-generated tsunamis.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 63%

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confidence: 99%

Mesoscale convective system surface pressure anomalies responsible for meteotsunamis along the U.S. East Coast on June 13th, 2013

Wertman

Yablonsky

Shen

et al. 2014

Sci Rep

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“…Meteorological tsunamis (meteotsunamis) are water-level oscillations which are similar to waves generated by seismic activity (‘tsunami waves’), except they have a meteorological origin and are not generated through seismic activity, volcanic explosions or submarine landslides [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ]. Time series of water-level records from Fremantle (Western Australia) obtained during the seismic tsunami of 2004 and a meteotsunami in 2002 indicate similar wave heights for both events ( figure 1 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are meteotsunamis an underrated hazard?

Pattiaratchi

Wijeratne

2015

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A.

124

114

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Meteotsunamis are generated by meteorological events, particularly moving pressure disturbances due to squalls, thunderstorms, frontal passages and atmospheric gravity waves. Relatively small initial sea-level perturbations, of the order of a few centimetres, can increase significantly through multi-resonant phenomena to create destructive events through the superposition of different factors. The global occurrence of meteotsunamis and the different resonance phenomena leading to amplification of meteotsunamis are reviewed. Results from idealized numerical modelling and field measurements from southwest Australia are presented to highlight the relative importance of the different processes. It is shown that the main influence that leads to amplification of the initial disturbance is due to wave shoaling and topographic resonance. Although meteotsunamis are not catastrophic to the extent of major seismically induced basin-scale events, the temporal and spatial occurrence of meteotsunamis are higher than those of seismic tsunamis as the atmospheric disturbances responsible for the generation of meteotsunamis are more common. High-energy events occur only for very specific combinations of resonant effects. The rareness of such combinations is perhaps the main reason why destructive meteotsunamis are exceptional and observed only at a limited number of sites globally.

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“…Meteorological tsunamis, or meteotsunamis, are similar to tsunami waves (defined as long or shallow-water waves, where the wave length, L, is much greater than the water depth, h) that are generated by seismic activity, except they have a meteorological origin (Rabinovich and Monserrat 1998;Rabinovich et al 2009;Pasquet et al 2013). Meteotsunamis also have similar periods to seismic tsunamis (Monserrat et al 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Observations of meteorological tsunamis along the south-west Australian coast

Pattiaratchi

Wijeratne

2014

Nat Hazards

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Tide gauge data were used to identify the occurrence, characteristics, and cause of tsunamis of meteorological origin (termed 'meteotsunamis') along the Western Australian coast. This is the first study to identify meteotsunamis in this region, and the results indicated that they occur frequently. Although meteotsunamis are not catastrophic to the extent of major seismically induced basin-scale events, the wave heights of meteotsunamis examined at some local stations in this study were higher than those recorded through seismic tsunamis. In June 2012, a meteotsunami contributed to an extreme water-level event at Fremantle, which recorded the highest water level in over 115 years. Meteotsunamis (wave heights [0.4 m, when the mean tidal range in the region is *0.5 m) were found to coincide with thunderstorms in summer and the passage of low-pressure systems during winter. Spectral analysis of tide gauge time series records showed that existing continental seiche oscillations (periods between 30 min and 5 h) were enhanced during the meteotsunamis, with a high proportion of energy transferred to the continental shelf oscillation period. Three recent meteotsunami events (22 March 2010, 10 June 2012, and 7 January 2013) two due to summer thunderstorms and one due to a winter frontal system were chosen for detailed analysis. The meteotsunami amplitudes were up to a factor 2 larger than the local tidal range and sometimes contributed up to 85 % of the non-tidal water signal. A single meteorological event was found to generate several meteotsunamis along the coast, up to 500 km apart, as the air pressure disturbance propagated over the continental shelf; however, the topography and local bathymetry of the continental shelf defined the local sea-level resonance characteristics at each location. With the available data (sea level and meteorological), the exact mechanisms for the generation of the meteotsunamis could not be isolated.

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A survey of strong high-frequency sea level oscillations along the US East Coast between 2006 and 2011

Cited by 28 publications

References 27 publications

Mesoscale convective system surface pressure anomalies responsible for meteotsunamis along the U.S. East Coast on June 13th, 2013

Mesoscale convective system surface pressure anomalies responsible for meteotsunamis along the U.S. East Coast on June 13th, 2013

Are meteotsunamis an underrated hazard?

Observations of meteorological tsunamis along the south-west Australian coast

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