Japan Geoscience Union Meeting 2022

Presentation information

[J] Oral

U (Union ) » Union

[U-09] Submarine volcanic eruption in Tonga accompanied by a meteo-tsunami

Sun. May 22, 2022 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM Exhibition Hall Special Setting (1) (Exhibition Hall 8, Makuhari Messe)

convener:Toshiyuki Hibiya(Department of Earth and Planetary Science, Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo), convener:Fukashi Maeno(Earthquake Research Institute, University of Tokyo), convener:Kensuke Nakajima(Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences,Flculty of Sciences,Kyushu University), convener:Yoshihiko Tamura(Research Institute for Marine Geodynamics, Japan Agency for Maine-Earth Science and Technology), Chairperson:Toshiyuki Hibiya(Department of Ocean Sciences, Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology), Kensuke Nakajima(Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences,Flculty of Sciences,Kyushu University)

9:45 AM - 10:00 AM

[U09-04] Global simulations of meteotsunamis excited by the 2022 Tonga eruption

*Masuo Nakano1, Tatsuo Suzuki1, Shingo Watanabe1, Yujiro Suzuki2 (1.Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, 2.Earthquake Research Institute,The University of Tokyo)

Keywords:meteotsunami, global model

The Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha'apai volcano erupted around 13 JST on 15 January 2022, and surface pressure anomalies of around 2 hPa as well as tidal fluctuations caused by meteotsunamis were observed over Japan. In order to investigate the generation and propagation mechanisms of the observed pressure anomalies and meteotsunamis, plume-atmosphere-ocean coupled simulations which can represent from the excitation mechanism of atmospheric waves to the ocean response are needed. As a first step, numerical experiments were conducted using the global atmospheric non-hydrostatic model NICAM (horizontal resolution 14 km, 78-layer, model top 50 km) to investigate what kind of atmospheric waves are generated by placing a thermal just above the volcano. The output was used to drive the global ocean general circulation model COCO (63 layers with a horizontal resolution of 0.1°) to investigate what kind of ocean waves are excited and propagated.
NICAM showed strong excitation of sea-level pressure anomalies propagating from volcanoes at about 300 m/s and 225 m/s, which correspond to the Lamb wave and atmospheric gravity wave, respectively. The pressure anomalies associated with the Lamb waves were one order of magnitude smaller than observed. COCO driven by sea level pressure in NICAM propagated sea level height anomalies corresponding to Lamb and atmospheric gravity waves, respectively. Although the amplitude of the sea level pressure anomalies was larger for the Lamb waves, the sea level height anomalies corresponding to the atmospheric gravity waves were larger due to resonance with shallow water waves. NICAM experiments will be conducted using the output of the plume model for realistic simulations.