Mathematical and Numerical Analysis of Tsunami Generation and Propagation: The Initial Tsunami Condition

Abstract

This work investigates the appropriate initial condition for tsunami propagation that allows replacing a kinematic system with its corresponding static formulation, where the bottom is fixed at its final earthquake-induced deformation. Using the two-dimensional (2D) nonlinear shallow-water equations (NSW) and a 2D dispersive $abcd$-Boussinesq system, we prove that for the NSW system, the appropriate initial free-surface condition is exactly the final bottom deformation. For the Boussinesq model, this condition is obtained by first applying a \textit{ Boussinesq filtering operator} to the bottom profile. Furthermore, for both models, we establish an error estimate between the kinematic and static solutions that depends linearly on the earthquake rise time. This result provides a rigorous mathematical explanation for the errors observed in previous numerical tsunami simulations. As a direct consequence, the error vanishes as the bottom motion becomes instantaneous. We validate the theoretical results using an Okada solution for the seabed deformation. In particular, both the NSW model and the passive approach, which initializes the free surface with the unfiltered bottom deformation, overestimate the amplitudes of the tsunami waves relative to the linear potential theory for the configurations considered.