ATOC 185 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Oceanic Basin, Subduction, Wind Wave

• School: McGill University
• Department: Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences
• Course: ATOC 185
• Professor: Multiple

Document Summary

Definition tsunami: a wave that is triggered by an offset in the ocean floor which creates an equal offset in the water. A title wave is not a tsunami since a tsunami is not triggered by tides. They can hit with little to no warning signs. Areas the most prone to tsunamis are also vulnerable to earthquakes and volcanoes (subduction zones) Most tsunamis occur in the pacific ocean basin/ pacific rim because of the subduction zone: pacific ring of fire. Cascadia is another dangerous subduction zone and has the potential of causing major tsunamis there. Wavelength: distance from one peak of a wave to another peak. The wavelength of a tsunami can exceed 200km (normal ocean wavelengths= 100m) Speed of a tsunami= wavelength / period (time it takes for a peak to pass a certain point from the peak in front of it) Shallow water wavespeed= squareroot of (gravity x water depth)