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Tsunami Early Warning System based on Real-time Measurements of Hydro-

acoustic Waves

Conference Paper  in  Procedia Engineering · September 2013

DOI: 10.1016/j.proeng.2014.02.035

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Procedia Engineering 00 (2013) 000–000

www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia

12th International Conference on Computing and Control for the Water Industry, CCWI2013

Tsunami early warning system based on real-time measurements of

hydro-acoustic waves
Claudia Cecionia,∗, Giorgio Bellottia , Alessandro Romanoa , Ali Abdolalia , Paolo
Sammarcob , Leopoldo Francoa
a University of Roma TRE, via Vito Volterra 62, Rome 00146, Italy
b University of Rome Tor Vergata, via del Politecnico 1, Rome 00133, Italy

Abstract
The paper presents a numerical model to reproduce the tsunami generation and propagation, which can be applied in real-time
to be used as a forecasting tool. Free surface elevation measurements in a point close to the tsunami generation area, allows the
real-time prediction of tsunami in the far field. This is possible due to an inversion technique. The measurements and modeling
of hydro-acoustic waves could shorten the time for spreading the alarm and reduce the number of false alerts. In the paper new
investigation about hydro-acoustic waves are also presented in order to outline their possible use to support Tsunami Early Warning
System.
c 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the CCWI2013 Committee.

Keywords: Tsunami; Early Warning System; hydro-acoustic wave.

1. Introduction

Tsunamis are impulsive waves mostly generated by underwater earthquakes or landslides. Their propagation occurs
at high celerity and, approaching to shallow water, their wave height can potentially become very large. The inundation
effects are therefore tragically known. Although a tsunami cannot be prevented, the coastal impact of such wave can
be mitigated through community preparedness, timely warnings, and effective response. The Tsunami Early Warning
Systems (TEWS) are therefore the most effective tool in order to reduce or avoid human victims. TEWS must show
some mandatory features in order to be effective, as: fast prediction, reliable response and efficient alarm. Tsunamis
have the energy to propagate across the ocean, therefore the longer are the distances covered, the longer is the time
to spread the alarm and more effective actions can be taken by local emergency authorities in order to save lives and
properties. Indeed in smaller seas, as the Mediterranean sea, tsunami detection, sea-level assessment and warning
must be completed within few minutes to provide reliable warnings to the population. The initial warning is based
on seismic wave as indirect measurement of tsunami generation, which provides the epicenter location and therefore
allows to roughly obtain the tsunami arrival time prediction. Then tsunamis are detected by bottom pressure records

∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +39-06-5733-3387 ; fax: +39-06-5733-3441.

E-mail address: claudia.cecioni@uniroma3.it

1877-7058 c 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the CCWI2013 Committee.
2 Cecioni et al. / Procedia Engineering 00 (2013) 000–000

or wind-waves gauges. There exist several algorithms in order to automatically perform the real-time detection of a
possible tsunami within recorded signals (Beltrami et al., 2011). Once the tsunami occurrence is confirmed by the
measurements, it is unfeasible to wait that the whole tsunami has been recorded for timely evacuation measures. It is
therefore preferable that tsunami recording occurs close to the generation area, in order to gain time in the tsunami
forecasting faraway from it.
Several researches have been carried out in order to improve the reliability of TEWS, testing different models of
wave propagation, and various tsunami inversion techniques. Among many previous studies, it is worth to cite Satake
(1987), Johnson et al. (1996) and Tinti et al. (1996). Recently Wei et al. (2003) and Titov et al. (2005) proposed a
method which combines real-time seismic and water level data with a database of precomputed tsunami scenarios.
Both works make use of a forecasting inversion technique based on Green’s function approach.
The present paper describes a numerical model, which reproduces tsunami generation and propagation and it allows
real-time tsunami prediction when just a truncated signal of the tsunami is known at specific points. Furthermore a new
approach for improving the reliability of TEWS is presented, based on the measurements of hydro-acoustic waves,
which could, together with the seismic information, improve the knowledge of the tsunami source.
It has been proved that sudden displacements of the sea bottom, as those associated with submerged earthquakes,
generate hydro-acoustic (pressure) waves, propagating at the celerity of the sound in water (1500 m/s). These waves
are precursors of tsunamis, since their propagation speed is much faster than that of the free surface waves. The idea
of using measurements of hydro-acoustic waves in order to anticipate the warning of tsunami arrival, dates back to
the work of Ewing et al. (1950). The modeling of tsunami in a weakly compressible fluid, has been investigated in
the past by several researchers, as Miyoshi (1954), Kajiura (1970), Yamamoto (1982). More recent studies (Nosov
and Kolesov, 2007; Chierici et al., 2010 and Bolshakova et al., 2011) have been carried out, especially after the
experimental evidence of the existence of hydro-acoustic waves measured during the Tokachi-Oki 2003 tsunami event.
The paper is structured as follows: the next section describes the numerical model which reproduces the generation
and propagation of tsunami; the model is that proposed by Bellotti et al. (2008) and hereinafter is only given a
brief outline of it, especially referring to the inverse technique which allows its real-time application for tsunami
forecasting. Section 3 presents an example of large scale application of the forecasting proposed method, based on a
probable hypothesis of tsunami recording in front of Stromboli island (South Tyrrhenian sea, Italy). Section 4 refers
in details the mathematical problem of wave generation and propagation in a weakly compressible fluid. The analysis
of different tsunami scenarios is reported, showing the correlation between the generation features (i.e. earthquake
parameters) and the produced hydro-acoustic waves. Moreover the application of a depth-integrated equation which
considers the weakly compressibility of the water is presented. In section 5 conclusions of the present work and future
research development are reported.

2. Description of the numerical model

The numerical model (Bellotti et al., 2008) solves the linearized depth-integrated mild-slope equation, MSE
(Berkhoff, 1972); it describes the small amplitude transient wave propagation in mildly sloped sea bed. In the fre-
quency domain the MSE has the following elliptic form:

  cg 1
∇ · ccg ∇N + ω2 N = − h˜tt , (1)
c cosh (khb )

where ∇ is the gradient in the horizontal plane (x, y), N(x, y, ω) is the Fourier transform of the free surface ele-
vation, c and cg are respectively the phase and group celerity, k is the wave number and ω is the angular frequency.
The right hand side of equation (1) represents the source term, which allows the incorporation of wave generation
due to the sea floor movements. Named h (x, y, t) the water depth, which varies in time reproducing the occurrence of
underwater landslide or seismic sea floor movement, the term h˜tt in the equation is the Fourier transform of its second
time derivative. The term 1/cosh(khb ) represents a filter function, which takes into account the bottom movement
effects on the free surface, and hb (x, y) is the undisturbed water depth. In order to reproduce the frequency dispersion
of broad banded spectra, as those of tsunamis, the model solves a set of equations as (1), one for each frequency
ω, with the appropriate boundary conditions. The free surface elevation in the time domain, η (x, y, t), can be then
 Cecioni et al. / Procedia Engineering 00 (2013) 000–000 3

achieved by taking the Inverse Fourier Transform of the superposition of all the monochromatic solutions N (x, y, ω).

As already shown in previous research (Cecioni et al., 2011), when the tsunami generation mechanism is known
and its effects on the water is reproduced by the forcing term, the model provides accurate reconstruction of the
tsunami scenario. When the model works in a tsunami early warning application, it makes use of the recording of
the tsunami itself and forecast, by means of an inversion technique, the propagating waveform in real-time. The
forecasting procedure is split in two parts. The first step is to solve the equations (1) for any frequency and using a
unit value of the source term. The results of such preliminary computations are referred to as N ′ (x, y, ω). In view of
the linearity of the problem the true solution in the frequency domain N (x, y, ω) can be obtained by multiplying N ′
for the Fourier transform of the unknown source term, indicated as S (ω):

N (x, y, ω) = S (ω)N ′ (x, y, ω) . (2)

Let us assume that at one point P of the computational domain the elevation of the surface ηP is available. Then at
that point the transformed variable NP can be easily calculated. Equation (2) can be inverted to obtain the source term
S (ω):
NP (ω)
S (ω) = (3)
NP′ (ω)

where NP′ is the result of the unit source term computations at the point P. The free surface elevation at any point
of interest of the domain can be obtained from equation (2), by means of inverse Fourier transform application.
Previous applications of the model (Cecioni et al., 2011) indicate that exist optimal positions for the recording
instruments, and what are the effects on the tsunami forecasting, when the tsunami generation mechanism is not
correctly modeled in the pre-event computations. The analysis of the hydro-acoustic wave to obtain information about
the generation mechanism, can in principle enhance the forecasting procedure, choosing pre-computed simulations as
close as possible to the real tsunamigenic event, and therefore reducing the forecasting errors.

3. Real-time tsunami forecasting

When a tsunami is detected by the tidal gauges, the early warning system immediately has to forecast the wave
properties at the target points. It is unrealistic, given the limited time available for spreading the warning, to wait until
the tsunamis have been completely measured. It is therefore clear that as the tsunamis are measured, the available time
series is to be used as input data. In real-time application, the system has to work with truncated input time series.
Here the model application to a probable landslide generated tsunami scenario at Stromboli is presented. Stromboli
is a volcanic island in the South Tyrrhenian Sea (west coast of Italy). The volcanic activity persistently produces
moderate explosions (named by volcanologist “strombolian” ). More relevant activities are accompanied by landslide
dislocation in the Sciara del Fuoco flank (very steep flank in the North-West coast of the island). Tsunamis generated
by landslide entering into the water or completely underwater sliding have been analyzed by means of physical model
(Di Risio et al., 2009a) and mathematical ones (Yim et al., 2008; Di Risio et al., 2008). In the case of Stromboli,
the treat of tsunamis for the island and the adjacent coasts is high, and several researches have been carried out (Tinti
et al., 2006; Di Risio et al., 2009b; Romano et al., 2013) especially after the tsunami event of the 30th December
2002. Bellotti et al. (2009) have investigated on the feasibility of TEWS for small volcanic islands, where the critical
concern is if there is enough time to spread the alarm once the system has recognized a generated tsunami.
The model has been previously run using a unitary wave-maker condition (unit velocity) at the North-West island
boundary. The simulation results are saved at the four points depicted in Figure 1. The real-time application of the
model is based on the assumption of recording the free surface elevation at point 1 (imposed by the authors as a simple
N-wave, with realistic wave height and period), then the model predicts the tsunami at other target points (i.e. points
2,3 and 4).
Several computations have been performed, assuming that the input time series at point 1 is available up to a given
time (tknown ):
ηinput (t) = η1 (t) , t ≤ tknown (4)
4 Cecioni et al. / Procedia Engineering 00 (2013) 000–000

Fig. 1. Computational domain of the Stromboli tsunami simulation.

ηinput (t) = 0, t > tknown . (5)

where η1 is the free surface elevation measured at point 1. The results depend therefore on the value of tknown . For
4 different value of tknown , in Figure 2 are shown the results of the model in terms of free surface elevation at point 1
and 4. The 4 subplots (a,b,c,and d) refers respectively to tknown = 484, 496, 512 and 556 s. On the upper panel of each
subplot is reported the free surface elevation at point 1, both the full time series (dashed thin line) and the truncated
input time series (thick line). On the lower panels it is shown the free surface elevation at point 4, the full time series
(dashed thin line) and the one predicted by the model at each specific tknown (thick line).

(a) (b)
20 20
η1 (m)
η1 (m)

0 0

−20
−20 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400
400 600 800 1000 1200 1400
5 5
η4 (m)
η4 (m)

0 0

−5 −5
400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400
t (s) t (s)
(c) (d)
20 20
η1 (m)
η1 (m)

0 0

−20 −20
400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400
5 5
η4 (m)
η4 (m)

0 0

−5 −5
400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400
t (s) t (s)

Fig. 2. Example of application of the model using truncated input time series. The subplots (a),(b),(c),and (d) respectively refer to the truncation
time tknown = 484, 496, 512 and 556 s. The upper panels of each subplots refer to data at point 1 of Fig. 1: the whole tsunami recording (dashed
thin line), and the truncated time series input of the model (thick line). The lower panels refer to the time series at point 4: the whole tsunami
recording (dashed thin line), and the estimated time series at each specific tknown (thick line).
 Cecioni et al. / Procedia Engineering 00 (2013) 000–000 5

It is interesting to note that the use of a truncated input time series introduces very high frequency components,
that are revealed by spurious short waves in the results. For tknown =496 s (Fig. 2 (b)) the crest of the first (highest)
wave is used in the input time series and the prediction at Panarea appears to be already comparable to the final one.
Since the highest wave will reach Panarea around 1000 s after the tsunami generation, its prediction can be achieved
around 500 s in advance. For tknown = 512 s (Fig. 2 (c)), 3/4 of the first wave in front of Stromboli is used with very
good results at Panarea. Then the results tend to those that would be obtained using the whole time series. The most
important parameter predicted by the model is certainly the maximum elevation at the point 4 (Panarea), referred to
as ηmax . As the tknown increases the prediction tends to the final one, as shown in Fig. 3. The vertical line in the figure
represents the time at which the crest of the first wave is measured at point 1 (around t = 500 s). The horizontal line
indicates the final value of ηmax . It is interesting to note that due to spurious high frequency components, induced by
the truncation of the input time series, for some values of the tknown , ηmax may be larger than the final one. However it
can be concluded that the model is able of dynamically provide estimates of the desired parameter without suffering
of instabilities. It is certainly desirable to carry out further research in the future in order to better understand if this
good behavior of the model can be considered to apply under more general conditions.

3.5

2.5
(m)

2
ηmax

1.5

0.5

0
300 400 500 600 700 800 900
tknown (s)

Fig. 3. Example of application of the model using truncated input time series; maximum surface elevation in front of Panarea island (at the point 4
of Fig. 1) as the time series at Stromboli (point 1) becomes available

4. Hydro-acoustic wave

In this section a mathematical description of a weakly compressible fluid 3D model is derived. A numerical appli-
cation of the model is performed, reproducing several tsunami scenarios, generated by different sea-bed dislocations.
The simulations results allow a parametric analysis of the generated hydro-acoustic wave. Moreover an efficient tool
to solve the hydro-acoustic wave field at large domain, as those related to tsunami propagation, with relatively low
computational costs is presented, based on the depth-integrated equation valid for mildly sloped sea-bed derived by
Sammarco et al. (2013). The equation, which can be considered as a mild slope equation for weakly compressible
fluid (MSEWC), has the main advantage to reproduce hydro-acoustic and surface waves in the 2D horizontal plane.
A comparison between 3D and MSEWC equations is presented in terms of free surface elevation and computational
costs.

4.1. Mathematical model

The kinematic and dynamic flow field, in a layer of ideal weakly compressible homogeneous fluid, can be mathe-
matically described by the wave equation and boundary conditions (Sommerfeld; 1964), in terms of the flow velocity
potential φ (x, y, z, t):

φ − c2s ∇2 φ − c2s φzz = 0


 tt




 φtt + gφz = 0 at z = 0 (6)
 φ + ∇h · ∇φ + h = 0 at z = −h (x, y, t)

z t
6 Cecioni et al. / Procedia Engineering 00 (2013) 000–000

where ∇ and ∇2 are respectively the gradient and the Laplacian in the horizontal plane (x, y), while subscripts on
dependent variables denote partial derivatives, c s is the sound wave celerity in water and g is the gravity acceleration.
The wave generation is obtained by means of the bottom boundary condition, where as before h (x, y, t) is the water
depth defined as:

h (x, y, t) = hb (x, y) − ζ (x, y, t) (7)

where hb is the fixed sea-floor and ζ represents the sea-floor dislocation, due to underwater earthquake or landslide.
The solution of the three-dimensional problem (6), φ, can be used to calculate the free surface elevation η (x, y, t)
and the pressure p (x, y, z, t) as follows:
1
η = −φt (8)
g
p = −φt ρ (9)

where ρ is the fluid density.

4.2. Parametric hydro-acoustic wave analysis

A numerical model which solves the mathematical problem (6) is build using the software COMSOL Multiphysics,
based on Finite Element Method. Several experiments in 2D (x − z plane) have been carried out in order to simulate
the hydro-acoustic and tsunami wave generation and propagation on a vertical section of a constant depth sea. For
all the simulations the computational domain is a rectangle 350 km wide, and 1.5 km high (as the water depth hb ).
The wave generation is obtained by means of the bottom boundary condition, which reproduces a simplified seismic
sea-floor motion in an area wide 2b, placed at the left side of the bottom boundary. The earthquake is modeled as a
constant velocity vertical rising for a duration τ. The total vertical displacement ζ0 is therefore assumed as the product
of the sea bed rising velocity v and the raising time τ. Away from the moving area the bottom boundary is treated
as a impermeable and fixed sea-floor. The left lateral boundary condition is that of fully reflection, in such way the
symmetry of the problem allows to reproduce just the right side area of the domain. While at the right lateral boundary
a radiation condition is imposed in order to ensure the waves free exit. The maximum element mesh size is 200 m for
a total of about 30000 elements and about 16500 degree of freedom. The time domain is discretized in a step of ∆t =
0.1 s and reproduce a time series of 1800 s.
(a) (b)
1.5 0.15

0.1
1
0.05
η (m)

0
0.5
−0.05

−0.1
0
−0.15

−0.5 −0.2
0 500 1000 1500 0 100 200 300 400 500
t(s) t(s)
(c) (d)
2000 60

50
1500
40
s.a. (m)

1000 30

20
500
10

0 0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 0 0.2 0.4 0.6
f(Hz) f(Hz)

Fig. 4. Simulation results at a distance of 200 km from the earthquake’s center, in a water depth of 1.5 km. The sea bottom movement reproduced
covers an area of 15 km, its dislocation is ζ0 = 1 m, and its velocity v = 1 m/s. Free surface elevations: (a) until the tsunamis is detected, (b) when
just the hydro-acoustic wave is arrived; (c) and (d) relative amplitude spectra.
 Cecioni et al. / Procedia Engineering 00 (2013) 000–000 7

Figure 4 shows the results of a simulation with the following parameter: b = 15 km, v = 1 m/s, and ζ0 = 1 m.
The water depth is 1.5 km and the data refers to a point distant 200 km from the earthquake’s center. Subplots (a)
and (b) show the same free surface elevation, but respectively for a longer and shorter time duration. In Fig. 4 (a)
the time series allows to recognize the presence of the tsunami, which has a maximum amplitude close to the total
sea-bed displacement (i.e. 1 m), while Fig. 4 (b) shows just the hydro-acoustic wave. The hydro-acoustic signal is
characterized by fast oscillations around the mean sea-level, with a period of about 4 s; and amplitude modulations
can be clearly visible. The subplots below, (c) and (d), are the relative amplitude spectra. In 4 (c) two peaks can be
seen: the low-frequency one is relative to the tsunami, while the other is relative to the first acoustic mode, and has a
peak frequency around the cut-off frequency, 0.25 Hz.
In order to study the possible correlations between the generation mechanism and the produced hydro-acoustic
wave, different simulations have been carried out, varying the earthquake kinematic parameters (v,ζ0 and τ). For all
the simulations performed, Fig. 5(a) correlates the maximum spectral amplitude of the hydro-acoustic signal, i.e.
time series truncated before the tsunami arrival time, with the sea-bed rising time τ. The maximum spectral amplitude
is plotted over the total sea floor dislocation ζ0 , and it can be noted that it decreases for longer τ. This result is in
agreement with that obtained by Nosov (1999). The dependence shows a non-monotone behavior, which is due to
resonance effects when the sea-bed rising time τ is equal to a multiple of the characteristic period of the water layer.

(a) (b)
0 −2
10 10

−1
10

Amax E
ζ0 10−2 v2 −3
10

−3
10

−4 −4
10 10
0 5 10 15 20 0 5 10 15 20
τ (s) τ (s)

Fig. 5. (a) Maximum spectral amplitude (Amax ) of the hydro-acoustic signal over the sea-bottom vertical displacement (ζ0 ) versus the sea-bottom
rising time τ. (b) Spectral energy of the hydro-acoustic signal over the squared velocity versus the sea-bottom rising time τ. For both figures the
hydro-acoustic time series analyzed start from the initial time of the sea-bed movement up to 400 s later. Each marker shows the result at a point
located at 200 km from the origin, and it refers to a different simulation, for a total of 115 results. All the simulations are performed at a water
depth of 1.5 km and with a sea-bed rising are 15 km wide.

The resonance condition shows a negative interference, which can be seen more clearly in Fig. 5(b). Here for
the same simulations the energy relative to the hydro-acoustic signals is plotted versus τ. All the simulations have
different values of v, τ and therefore ζ0 , however the energy is clearly proportional to the squared velocity and their
ratio shows a dependence with τ, by virtue of resonance effects.
The natural period of the water layer is that defined by the cut-off frequency for each acoustic mode defined as:
(2n − 1) c s
fn = (10)
4h
where n = 1,2,3,... is the acoustic mode number. Since all the simulations of Fig. 5(a) and (b) are performed for the
same water depth h = 1.5 km, the cut-off frequency of the first acoustic mode is 0.25 Hz and therefore the natural
period of the water layer is 4 s. From Fig. 5(b) it can be noted that for long sea bed rising time (τ) the hydro-acoustic
wave energy and the resonance effect decrease.
Fig. 6 shows the relation between the spectral energy of the hydro-acoustic signal and the sea-bed velocity which
generates it. In the logarithmic plane the energy grows linearly with the sea-bed velocity; however since each velocity
value can be recovered for different combination of the ratio ζ0 over τ, the hydro-acoustic energy varies in a constant
wide range due to resonance conditions for specific τ.
Moreover, different experiments have been performed keeping constant the moving sea bottom displacement (ζ0 = 1
m) and its velocity (v = 1 m/s), but varying the width of the moving sea-bed area b and the water depth h. The acoustic
8 Cecioni et al. / Procedia Engineering 00 (2013) 000–000
−1
10

−2
10

−3
10
E
−4
10

−5
10

−6
10 0
10
v(m/s)

Fig. 6. Spectral energy of the hydro-acoustic signal (from the initial time of the sea-bed movement up to 400 s later) versus the sea-bed rising
velocity. Each marker shows the result at a point located at 200 km from the origin, and it refers to a different simulation, for a total of 115 results.
All the simulations are performed at a water depth of 1.5 km and with a sea-bed rising are 15 km wide.

signals present amplitude modulations, which can be clearly recognized looking at the time series (Fig. 4b), and in
the frequency domain correspond to modulation of the spectral amplitude (Fig. 4d). The more representative effect of
an increasing ratio between the earthquake width and the water depth, is the growth of the number of modulations.

1
10
n.M OD

0
10
0 1 2
10 10 10
b/h

Fig. 7. Number of amplitude modulations (relative to the free surface oscillation time series from 0 to 400 s, at x = 200 km) varying with the ratio
of the earthquake width over the water depth, in a plot with logarithmic axes

Fig. 7 shows the number of modulations (during a time interval from the beginning of the earthquake up to 400 s
later) against the ratio b/h for five experiments with h = 1.5 km and b = 5, 15, 30, 45 and 60 km and one with h = 3 km
and b = 15 km. The data refer to the points located at the free surface and at 200 km from the side of the earthquake
(x = b + 200 km). The dashed line represents the best fitting of the data, expressed by the function:
bD
n.MOD = C (11)
h
where the equation’s parameter C and D have been estimated by means of the Gauss-Newton non linear optimiza-
tion method (C = 1.06 and D = 0.66).

4.3. Depth-integrated equation in weakly compressible fluid

In order to reproduce the generation and propagation of hydro-acoustic wave in large domains, i.e. at geographical
scale, a numerical model which solves the three-dimensional problem (6) requires heavy and long computations. It
has therefore been tested a MSE, as (1), which is moreover able to consider the compressibility of the water. The
equation is that recently found by Sammarco et al. (2013). The authors describe the derivation of the equation for
weakly compressible fluid (MSEWC). Here just an application to a large scale domain is presented, showing the
comparison between the 3D problem (6) and the MSEWC.
 Cecioni et al. / Procedia Engineering 00 (2013) 000–000 9

(a)
1

−1

−2

−3
−50 0 50 100 150 200 250 300
x (km)
(b)
1

η (m) 0.5

−0.5
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800
(c)
1

0.5
η (m)

−0.5
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800
t (s)

Fig. 8. (a) Sketch of the 3D numerical domain. (b) Free surface elevation at x = 200 km as computed solving the MSEWC (gray line) and solving
the MSE for incompressible fluid (black line). (c) Free surface elevation at x = 200 km as computed solving the 3D problem.

A large domain, sketched in Fig. 8 (a), is used to reproduce generation and propagation of wave. The area of sea-
bed motion, highlighted with tick line in Fig. 8 (a), is 15 km wide. The sea-bed motion parameters are: ζ0 = 1 m and τ
= 1 s. The simulation results are presented in Fig. 8 (b) and (c), and are relative to the free-surface elevation at x = 200
km. Fig. 8 (b) shows the MSEWC result with gray line, and that of MSE (i.e. incompressible fluid) with black line.
The subplot (c) shows the result of application of the 3D equation (6). The solution of the MSEWC and that of the
3D problem are in a good overall agreement. Some discrepancies are due to a frequency cut on the depth-integrated
model (frequency bands had to be chosen to solve). It has to be noted that the used FEM and the mesh size are the
same for both computations; the computational time to solve the 3D problem is one order of magnitude higher than
that needed to solve the depth-integrated equation.

5. Conclusions

The real-time application of a numerical model which reproduces tsunami generation and propagation, has been
presented. By using tsunami free surface elevation measurement, the model is able to predict the propagating wave
field, even when just the first wave crest of the whole tsunami group has been recorded. A real application case is
shown in the South Tyrrhenian Sea (west coast of Italy) for tsunami generated by landslide impacting the water. The
model is able to deal with truncated input time series (tsunami measurements) and it roughly provides good tsunami
prediction in short time.
Moreover the authors have investigated on the hydro-acoustic waves generated by underwater sea-bed rapid move-
ments, as those due to earthquakes. A numerical model which takes into account the weakly compressibility of water
has been built for simplified conditions, and a parametric analysis has been carried out in order to correlate the sea-
bed motion parameters with the generated hydro-acoustic waves. In order to use these pressure waves as precursor
of tsunami, a most computation efficient model has been proposed, which is that based on the depth-integrated equa-
tion of Sammarco et al. (2013). There currently exist deep sea multidisciplinary observatories, where low frequency
hydroacoustic waves are measured in a low noise environment. Given the recent advances in deep sea measurement
technology, there is the need of efficient modeling tools to help interpretation of the acquired data. The authors of this
paper participate to a project aimed at the measurement of hydroacoustic waves offshore Sicily (Italy), using a cabled
observatory at a water depth of 3000 m (Simeone and Viola, 2011).
10 Cecioni et al. / Procedia Engineering 00 (2013) 000–000

Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the Italian Ministry of Research (MIUR), under the research project FIRB 2008-FUTURO
IN RICERCA (Design, construction and operation of the Submarine Multidisciplinary Observatory experiment).

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