Abstract
Large-amplitude sea level oscillations in the tsunami frequency range have been occasionally observed in some coastal zones of the World Ocean when no seismic activity was recorded. These waves are mainly related to local atmospheric disturbances and, following Defant, are going to be referred to as ‘meteorological tsunamis’. As well as ordinary tsunamis, meteorological tsunamis can also be a cause of loss of life and catastrophic destruction in coastal areas. A review of such waves is presented with particular attention to the disastrous oscillations in Ciutadella inlet, the Balearic Islands, locally known as ‘rissaga’. Sea level/bottom pressure measurements in the regions of the Balearic (Western Mediterranean) and Kuril (Northwest Pacific) Islands were processed together with simultaneous atmospheric pressure records in the same areas to study the nature of meteorological tsunamis.
The results are used to present a descriptive and statistical analysis of strong events in these regions, to examine the response of the same inlet to different atmospheric events, and the different bay/inlets to the same event. It is found that seiches in various inlets strengthen at the same time just when atmospheric activity increases, although every inlet responds to a similar atmospheric forcing with different intensity, probably due to the influence of the local topography and geometry. Three types of strong events are identified apparently responding to different generation mechanisms.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Akamatsu, H.: 1982, On seiches in Nagasaki Bay, Papers Meteor. Geophys. 33, 95–115 (in Japanese).
Bowers, E.C.: 1977, Harbour resonance due to set-down beneath wave groups, J. Fluid Mech. 79, 71–92.
Chapman, D.C. and Giese, G.S.: 1990, A model for the generation of coastal seiches by deep-sea internal waves, J. Phys. Oceanogr. 20, 1459–1467.
Defant, A.: 1961, Physical Oceanography, Vol. 2, Oxford, Pergamon Press.
Donn, W.L.: 1959, The Great Lakes storm surge of May 5, 1952, J. Geophys. Res. 64, 191–198.
Donn, W.L. and Ewing, M.: 1956, Stokes edge waves in Lake Michigan, Science, 124, 1238–1242.
Donn, W.L. and Balachandran, N.K.: 1969, Coupling between a moving air-pressure disturbance and the sea surface, Tellus 21, 701–706.
Djumagaliev, V.A., Levyant, A.S., and Fine I.V.: 1989, Calculation of resonance frequencies of bays, Tsunamis: Their Science and Hazard Mitigation. ProceedingsIUGG/IOC International Tsunami Symposium, Novosibirsk, 131–135.
Djumagaliev, V.A., Kulikov, E.A. and Soloviev, S.L.: 1993, Analyses of ocean level oscillations in Malokurilskaya Bay caused by tsunami on February 16, 1991, Science of Tsunami Hazards 11, 47–55.
Djumagaliev, V.A. and Rabinovich, A.B.: 1993, Long wave investigations at the shelf and in the bays of the South Kuril Islands, J. Korean Soc. Coastal and Ocean Eng. 5, 318–328.
Ewing, M., Press, F. and Donn, W.L.: 1954, An explanation of the Lake Michigan wave of 26 June 1954, Science 120, 684–686.
Fontseré, E.: 1934, Les ‘seixes’ de la costa catalana. Servei Meteorologic de Catalunya, Notes d' Estudi 58 (in Catalan).
Giese, G.S. and Hollander, R.B.: 1987, The relationship between coastal seiches at Palawan Island and tide-generated internal solitary waves in the Sulu Sea, J. Geophys. Res. 92, 5151–5156.
Giese, G.S., Chapman, D.C., Black, P.G. and Fornshell, J.A.: 1990, Causation of large-amplitude coastal seiches on the Caribbean coast of Puerto Rico, J. Phys. Oceanogr. 20, 1449–1458.
Giese, G.S., Chapman, D.C., Garcies, M., Gomis, D. and Monserrat, S.: 1994, Large-amplitude harbour seiches in the Western Mediterranean. Part II: Generation by tide generated internal waves. Abstracts, AGU Ocean Sciences Meeting, San Diego, EOS 75, 61.
Gomis, D., Monserrat, S. and Tintoré, J.: 1993, Pressure-forced seiches of large amplitude in inlets of the Balearic Islands, J. Geophys. Res. 98, 14437–14445.
Gossard, E.E. and Hooke, W.H.: 1975, Waves in the Atmosphere, Elsevier, Amsterdam.
Harris, F.J.: 1978, On the use of windows for harmonic analysis with the discrete Fourier Transform, Proc. IEEE, 66, 51–83 (also in: S. B. Kesler (ed), Modern Spectrum Analysis, II, 1986, IEEE Press, New York, 172–204).
Herron, T.J., Tolstoy, I., and Kraft, D.W.: 1969, Atmospheric pressure background fluctuations in the mesoscale range, J. Geophys. Res. 74, 1321–1329.
Hibiya, T. and Kajiura, K.: 1982, Origin of ‘Abiki’ phenomenon (a kind of seiches) in Nagasaki Bay, J. Oceanogr. Soc. Japan 38, 172–182.
Hodžić, M.: 1979, Exceptional oscillations in the Bay of Vela Luka and meteorological situation on the Adriatic, International School of Meteorology of the Mediterranean, 1 Course, Erice, Italy.
Honda, K., Terada, T., Yoshida, Y. and Isitani, D.: 1908, An investigation on the secondary undulations of oceanic tides, J. College Sci., Imp. Univ. Tokyo.
Jansà, A.: 1986, Respuesta marina a perturbaciones mesometeorologicas: la ‘rissaga’ de 21 de junio de 1984 en Ciutadella (Menorca), Rev. Meteorologia, junio, 5–29 (in Spanish).
Kovalev, P.D., Rabinovich, A.B. and Shevchenko, G.V.: 1991, Investigation of long waves in the tsunami frequency band on the southwestern shelf of Kamchatka, Natural Hazards 4, 141–159.
Luther, D.: 1982, Evidence of a 4–6 day barotropic, planetary oscillation of the Pacific Ocean, J. Phys. Oceanogr. 12, 644–657.
Massaguer, J.M. and Net, M.: 1986, Contribucio a L'estudi de les Rissagues, Escola Tecnica Superior d'Enginyers de Camins, Canals i Ports, Unversitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, 88 p. (in Catalan).
Miles, J. and Munk, W.: 1961, Harbor paradox, J. Waterways Harbor Division 87, 111–130.
Monserrat, S., Ibbetson, A. and Thorpe, A.J.: 1991, Atmospheric gravity waves and the ‘rissaga’ phenomenon, Q. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc. 117, 553–570.
Monserrat, S. and Thorpe, A.J.: 1992, Gravity wave observations using an array of microbarographs in the Balearic Islands, Q. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc. 118, 259–282.
Murty, T.S.: 1977, Seismic Sea Waves — Tsunamis, Bull. Fish. Res. Board Canada 198, Ottawa.
Murty, T.S.: 1984, Storm Surges. Meteorological Ocean Tides, Ottawa, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Bull. 212.
Nakano, M. and Unoki, S.: 1962, On the seiches (the secondary undulations of tides) along the coast of Japan, Records Oceanogr. Works in Japan, Spec. No 6, 169–214.
Nomitsu, T.: 1935, A theory of tsunamis and seiches produced by wind and barometric gradient. Mem. Coll. Sci. Imp. Univ. Kyoto, A18(4), 201–214.
Okihiro, M., Guza, R.T., and Seymour, R.J.: 1993, Excitation of seiche observed in a small bay, J. Geophys. Res. 98, 18201–18211.
Papadopoulos, G.A., Polymenakos, E., Tsimplis, M. and Vlachakis, G.: 1992, An exceptional sea-wave observed in the Aegean: A geological or meteorological event? XVII EGS General Assembly, Edinburgh, C109.
Park, H.I., Chung, J.Y. and Oh, I.S.: 1986, Numerical experiments of the seiche in Young-il Bay and Pohang New Harbour, Korea, J. Oceanol. Soc. Korea 21, 245–258 (in Korean).
Rabinovich, A. B.: 1993, Long Ocean Gravity Waves: Trapping, Resonance, Leaking, St. Petersburg, Gidrometeoizdat (in Russian).
Rabinovich, A.B. and Levyant, A.S.: 1992, Influence of seiche oscillations on the formation of the long-wave spectrum near the coast of the Southern Kuriles, Oceanology, 32 17–23.
Rabinovich, A.B., Djumagaliev, V.A., Fine, I.V. and Kulikov, Ye.A.: 1993, Analysis of weak tsunamis in the region of Kuril Islands and resonance influence of topography, Proceedings IUGG/IOC International Tsunami Symposium, Wakayama, Japan, 95–105.
Rabinovich, A.B. and Monserrat, S.: 1995, Generation of meteorological tsunamis near the Balearic and Kuril Islands. (In preparation).
Ramis, C. and Jansà, A.: 1983, Condiciones meteorologicas simultaneas a la aparicion de oscilaciones del nivel del mar de amplitud extraordinaria en el Mediterraneo occidental, Rev. Geofisica 39, 35–42 (in Spanish).
Satake K., Okada, M. and Abe, K.: 1988, Tide gauge response to tsunamis: measurements at 40 tide gauge stations in Japan, J. Mar. Res. 46, 557–571.
Shillington, F.A.: 1984, Long period edge waves off southern Africa, Cont. Shelf Res. 3, 343–357.
Tintoré, J., Gomis, D., Alonso, S. and Wang, D.P.: 1988, A theoretical study of large sea level oscillations in the Western Mediterranean, J. Geophys. Res. 93, 10797–10803.
Wang, X., Li, K., Yu, Z. and Wu, J.: 1987, Statistical characteristics of seiches in Longkou Harbour, J. Phys. Oceanogr. 17, 1063–1065.
Wiegel, R. L.: 1964, Oceanographical Engineering, Prentice-Hall, London.
Wilson, B.: 1972, Seiches, Adv. in Hydrosc. 8, 1–94.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rabinovich, A.B., Monserrat, S. Meteorological tsunamis near the Balearic and Kuril Islands: Descriptive and statistical analysis. Nat Hazards 13, 55–90 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00156506
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00156506