Tsunami Genesis Theory and GPS Detection Methodology

Conventional tsunami warning systems often rely on estimates of an earthquake's magnitude to determine whether a large tsunami will be generated. However, earthquake magnitude is not always a reliable indicator of tsunami potential. This study includes two parts: 1) understanding how ocean receives energy from an undersea earthquake during the tsunami excitation period to generate tsunamis and 2) developing a real- time methodology to estimate the energy by using data from coastal GPS stations near the epicenter before the tsunami reaches coastal areas. Specifically, the tsunami energy, derived from GPS displacements near the epicenter, is used to calculate a new measurement called a "tsunami scale" ranging from one to 10, much like the earthquake "Richter Scale", which is then used to discriminate earthquakes capable of generating destructive tsunamis from those unlikely to. This method has been successfully tested on several historical events of earthquake-generated tsunamis.