I’m for a scientific term that describes the ‘convergence’ of two or more tsunami systems. It’s not ‘convergent tsunami’. I haven’t found that term to describe the process of merging tsunami waves. I remember watching a video on the 2011 Fukushima tsunami. It was describing the ‘convergence’ of more than one tsunami system. The program used the word ‘convergent’ or ‘convergence’ but I could not find that term used anywhere to describe that process. I hope someone knows a proper scientific term to describe the actual ‘convergence’ of the tsunami waves as they merge and crash onto shore. The usual term for such a tsunami is ‘mega-tsunami’.
Are you talking about more than one seismic event occurring at the same time? That sounds unlikely, but perhaps waves rebounding off of two other land masses and meeting again at a third location is a possibility. I wonder if the word “convergent” in the show was referring to converging tectonic plates which was the cause of that tsunami.
Constructive Interference?
Thanks Elmer. I remember the animation of waves ‘converging’. I don’t remember it being in the context of the tectonic plates. Cannot waves caused by different tectonic disturbances converge at some point to create larger waves? I’m sorry I don’t have anything else to go on.
Thanks Frodo. That’s exactly it.
On average, there are only two tsunamis a year that actually cause any damage. The chances of two happening at the same time seems astronomically remote.
I was going to suggest constructive interference, but was ninjaed by @Frodo . However Wikipedia lists other potential rogue wave mechanisms such as diffractive focusing, focusing by currents, nonlinear effects (modulational instability, solitons, etc), constructive interference, wind-wave interactions, and thermal expansion:
That’s not what a megatsunami is. It’s when a large amount of material suddenly enters a body of water and causes a much higher wave than ordinary tsunamis. Big stuff like asteroids or mountains. It’s not that multiple waves coalesce, it’s that the impulse is just that much bigger.
My mistake. Thanks for that correction. The
Tōhoku earthquake was a teletsunami.
Just for the record, the program I watched did not mention constructive interference or rogue waves. So thanks for the terminology. Would you apply these terms for any tsunami or the 2004/2011 variety ?
No. Completely unrelated.
As @Darren_Garrison says, rogue waves, aka freak waves are not necessarily at all associated to impulsive tsunami or megatsunami displacements like earthquakes and rockfalls. But I was thinking that makes them even more mysterious and interesting, and appropriate, as test cases for constructive interference, non-linearity, and whatever other weird effects that can turn packets or groups of normal waves into a monster wave several times higher.
E.g., this experiment
recreated a rogue wave as a result of “crossing seas” at a sufficiently large angle, so there is another scientific/nautical term for you.