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Main Authors: Monahan, Thomas, Tang, Tianning, Roberts, Stephen, Adcock, Thomas A. A.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.02469
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author Monahan, Thomas
Tang, Tianning
Roberts, Stephen
Adcock, Thomas A. A.
author_facet Monahan, Thomas
Tang, Tianning
Roberts, Stephen
Adcock, Thomas A. A.
contents On September 16th, 2023, an anomalous 10.88 mHz seismic signal was observed globally, persisting for 9 days. One month later an identical signal appeared, lasting for another week. Several studies have theorized that these signals were produced by seiches which formed after two landslide generated mega-tsunamis in an East-Greenland fjord. This theory is supported by seismic inversions, and analytical and numerical modeling, but no direct observations have been made -- until now. Using data from the new Surface Water Ocean Topography mission, we present the first observations of this phenomenon. By ruling out other oceanographic processes, we validate the seiche theory of previous authors and independently estimate its initial amplitude at 7.9 m using Bayesian machine learning and seismic data. This study demonstrates the value of satellite altimetry for studying extreme events, while also highlighting the need for specialized methods to address the altimetric data's limitations, namely temporal sparsity. These data and approaches will help in understanding future unseen extremes driven by climate change.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2411_02469
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle First observations of the seiche that shook the world
Monahan, Thomas
Tang, Tianning
Roberts, Stephen
Adcock, Thomas A. A.
Geophysics
Machine Learning
On September 16th, 2023, an anomalous 10.88 mHz seismic signal was observed globally, persisting for 9 days. One month later an identical signal appeared, lasting for another week. Several studies have theorized that these signals were produced by seiches which formed after two landslide generated mega-tsunamis in an East-Greenland fjord. This theory is supported by seismic inversions, and analytical and numerical modeling, but no direct observations have been made -- until now. Using data from the new Surface Water Ocean Topography mission, we present the first observations of this phenomenon. By ruling out other oceanographic processes, we validate the seiche theory of previous authors and independently estimate its initial amplitude at 7.9 m using Bayesian machine learning and seismic data. This study demonstrates the value of satellite altimetry for studying extreme events, while also highlighting the need for specialized methods to address the altimetric data's limitations, namely temporal sparsity. These data and approaches will help in understanding future unseen extremes driven by climate change.
title First observations of the seiche that shook the world
topic Geophysics
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.02469