Proposal
Accurately modeling tsunami run-ups on land has long been a tough assignment in numerical modeling for geophysicists. One of the most critical issues in modeling tsunami wave propagation is representing the behavior of water as its depth approaches zero, particularly at the dynamic boundary between water and dry land (Kristina et al., 2014). The zero water depth condition presents significant numerical errors due to thinning of the water layer, which can lead to instabilities, particle clustering, and numerical diffusion when employing discrete particle methods. Understanding and resolving these challenges is important because it allows for a more realistic simulation of sediment transport and erosion during catastrophic events such as the Genesis Flood (Baumgardner, 2016). Accurately capturing water behavior in wet-dry domains not only contributes to modeling tsunami run-up accurately and the interaction with coastal structures but also deepens our understanding of ancient geological processes that have shaped continental landscapes (Scardino et al., 2022).
This research builds on the foundational work of Dr. Baumgardner, who utilized the MABBUL code to demonstrate that repetitive giant tsunamis generated by catastrophic plate tectonics during the Genesis Flood could plausibly account for the observed sedimentary record (Baumgardner & Navarro, 2023). While Dr. Baumgardner’s work provided evidence of the sedimentary record left behind by such cataclysmic events, it also highlighted the limitations of existing numerical schemes in accurately representing the transition region where water depth tends to near-zero values. Addressing this limitation is the primary focus of our study, which seeks to answer the following question: How does the use of the advanced numerical schemes in tsunami run-up simulation account for scenarios where the water layer thickness approaches zero at the interface between water and dry land? What numerical issues arise from this condition, and what numerical techniques can be developed to overcome the inherent limitations of representing extremely thin layers with discrete particles?
To address these challenges, our study will employ a mesh-based method that effectively tracks discrete particles as they propagate through the computational domain during tsunami events.
We are currently working with an implicit numerical scheme, specifically the Crank-Nicolson method for modeling, to overcome these issues. This implicit approach is chosen for its ability to handle stiff equations that arise in wet-dry conditions and to stabilize the numerical solution in regions where conventional explicit methods fail. Preliminary results from one-dimensional (1D) simulations indicate that incorporating the implicit Crank-Nicolson scheme significantly mitigates the numerical instabilities encountered at the wet-dry land interface. We expect this research to advance our understanding of the major role that tsunamis played in the generation of the sediment record during the Genesis Flood.
References
Baumgardner, J. (2016). Numerical modeling of the large-scale erosion, sediment transport, and deposition processes of the Genesis Flood. Answers Research Journal, 9, 1–24.
Baumgardner, J., & Navarro, E. (2023). (2023). The Role of Large Tsunamis in the Formation of the Flood Sediment Record. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the International Conference on Creationism, , 9(1) 13.
Kristina, W., Bokhove, O., & Van Groesen, E. (2014). Effective coastal boundary conditions for tsunami wave run-up over sloping bathymetry. Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics, 21(5), 987–1005.
Scardino, G., Rizzo, A., De Santis, V., Kyriakoudi, D., Rovere, A., Vacchi, M., Torrisi, S., & Scicchitano, G. (2022). Insights on the origin of multiple tsunami events affected the archaeological site of Ognina (south-eastern Sicily, Italy). Quaternary International, 638, 122–139.
Keywords
Genesis Flood, Tsunami run-up, Shallow water equations, Sediment transport, and Numerical modeling
Submission Type
Oral Presentation
Copyright
© 2025 Oluwafemi S. Dada, John Baumgardner, and Heechen Cho. All rights reserved.
Included in
Computational Engineering Commons, Geological Engineering Commons, Mechanical Engineering Commons
Genesis Flood and Tsunami Run-Up: A Study of Zero Water Depth Using the Shallow Water Equations
Accurately modeling tsunami run-ups on land has long been a tough assignment in numerical modeling for geophysicists. One of the most critical issues in modeling tsunami wave propagation is representing the behavior of water as its depth approaches zero, particularly at the dynamic boundary between water and dry land (Kristina et al., 2014). The zero water depth condition presents significant numerical errors due to thinning of the water layer, which can lead to instabilities, particle clustering, and numerical diffusion when employing discrete particle methods. Understanding and resolving these challenges is important because it allows for a more realistic simulation of sediment transport and erosion during catastrophic events such as the Genesis Flood (Baumgardner, 2016). Accurately capturing water behavior in wet-dry domains not only contributes to modeling tsunami run-up accurately and the interaction with coastal structures but also deepens our understanding of ancient geological processes that have shaped continental landscapes (Scardino et al., 2022).
This research builds on the foundational work of Dr. Baumgardner, who utilized the MABBUL code to demonstrate that repetitive giant tsunamis generated by catastrophic plate tectonics during the Genesis Flood could plausibly account for the observed sedimentary record (Baumgardner & Navarro, 2023). While Dr. Baumgardner’s work provided evidence of the sedimentary record left behind by such cataclysmic events, it also highlighted the limitations of existing numerical schemes in accurately representing the transition region where water depth tends to near-zero values. Addressing this limitation is the primary focus of our study, which seeks to answer the following question: How does the use of the advanced numerical schemes in tsunami run-up simulation account for scenarios where the water layer thickness approaches zero at the interface between water and dry land? What numerical issues arise from this condition, and what numerical techniques can be developed to overcome the inherent limitations of representing extremely thin layers with discrete particles?
To address these challenges, our study will employ a mesh-based method that effectively tracks discrete particles as they propagate through the computational domain during tsunami events.
We are currently working with an implicit numerical scheme, specifically the Crank-Nicolson method for modeling, to overcome these issues. This implicit approach is chosen for its ability to handle stiff equations that arise in wet-dry conditions and to stabilize the numerical solution in regions where conventional explicit methods fail. Preliminary results from one-dimensional (1D) simulations indicate that incorporating the implicit Crank-Nicolson scheme significantly mitigates the numerical instabilities encountered at the wet-dry land interface. We expect this research to advance our understanding of the major role that tsunamis played in the generation of the sediment record during the Genesis Flood.
References
Baumgardner, J. (2016). Numerical modeling of the large-scale erosion, sediment transport, and deposition processes of the Genesis Flood. Answers Research Journal, 9, 1–24.
Baumgardner, J., & Navarro, E. (2023). (2023). The Role of Large Tsunamis in the Formation of the Flood Sediment Record. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the International Conference on Creationism, , 9(1) 13.
Kristina, W., Bokhove, O., & Van Groesen, E. (2014). Effective coastal boundary conditions for tsunami wave run-up over sloping bathymetry. Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics, 21(5), 987–1005.
Scardino, G., Rizzo, A., De Santis, V., Kyriakoudi, D., Rovere, A., Vacchi, M., Torrisi, S., & Scicchitano, G. (2022). Insights on the origin of multiple tsunami events affected the archaeological site of Ognina (south-eastern Sicily, Italy). Quaternary International, 638, 122–139.