TY - JOUR T1 - Comparison between three-dimensional linear and nonlinear tsunami generation models A1 - Kervella,Youen A1 - Dutykh,Denys A1 - Dias,Frédéric AD - ENS Cachan, CMLA, CNRS, PRES Univ Sud, F-94230 Cachan, France. AD - IFREMER, Lab DYNECO PHYSED, F-29280 Plouzane, France. UR - https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00000/2620/ DO - 10.1007/s00162-007-0047-0 KW - Nonlinear shallow water equations KW - Potential flow KW - Water waves KW - Boundary element method KW - Finite volume method KW - Tsunami generation N2 - The modeling of tsunami generation is an essential phase in understanding tsunamis. For tsunamis generated by underwater earthquakes, it involves the modeling of the sea bottom motion as well as the resulting motion of the water above. A comparison between various models for three-dimensional water motion, ranging from linear theory to fully nonlinear theory, is performed. It is found that for most events the linear theory is sufficient. However, in some cases, more-sophisticated theories are needed. Moreover, it is shown that the passive approach in which the seafloor deformation is simply translated to the ocean surface is not always equivalent to the active approach in which the bottom motion is taken into account, even if the deformation is supposed to be instantaneous. Y1 - 2007/07 PB - Springer JF - Theoretical and Computational Fluid Dynamics SN - 0935-4964 VL - 21 IS - 4 SP - 245 EP - 269 ID - 2620 ER -