Examining an English Channel "atmospherically-generated tsunami" using observations and simulations

What is it about?

An atmospherically-generated tsunami (a meteotsunami), is a wave that has many characteristics of an earthquake-generated tsunami but is instead made by atmospheric weather phenomena. In this case, a line of storms generated a meteotsunami on the morning of 23 June 2016 in the English Channel (between France and the UK), and we explain how the wave was made. We first show possible mechanisms by comparing the observed atmospheric variables (pressure, wind speed, speed of the storms) to the wave height, and then we complete computer simulations of the tsunami to more rigorously test these explanations.

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