A powerful tsunami seen from space is overturning what scientists thought they knew about how these waves travel.A satellite designed to measure ocean surface height delivered a remarkable result when a powerful earthquake near Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula unleashed a tsunami that spread across the Pacific in late July.
Scientists report in The Seismic Record that the Surface Water Ocean Topography or SWOT satellite recorded the first high-resolution space-based track of a major tsunami generated by a subduction zone earthquake. This new view revealed a far more complicated wave pattern than expected, with energy spreading and scattering across the ocean. The findings could help researchers better understand how tsunamis move and how they may impact coastlines.
Unexpectedly Complex Wave Patterns
Angel Ruiz-Angulo of the University of Iceland and his team combined the satellite observations with readings from DART (Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis) buoys positioned along the tsunami’s path. Together, the data provided new insight into the magnitude 8.8 earthquake that struck on July 29 in the Kuril-Kamchatka subduction zone. It ranks as the sixth-largest earthquake recorded worldwide since 1900.
“I think of SWOT data as a new pair of glasses,” said Ruiz-Angulo. “Before, with DARTs we could only see the tsunami at specific points in the vastness of the ocean. There have been other satellites before, but they only see a thin line across a tsunami in the best-case scenario. Now, with SWOT, we can capture a swath up to about 120 kilometers wide, with unprecedented high-resolution data of the sea surface.”
