# Fluid dynamics tsunami

I have been given a energy head (pressure) in meters for a given tsunami on land. If the tsunami hits a wall 1 meter by 1 meter, is it possible to calculate the height it will reach. I am thinking it is due to the fact that a liquid is incompressible and therefore a given pressure will make the tsunami height rise when it hits the wall to a certain height.

• Making the impractical assuming no energy gets transferred to the wall, the entire energy will be converted to potential energy – tpb261 Jun 10 '14 at 3:22
• so if you assume some energy is transferred to the wall can you calculate, how much energy would be transferred and/or the maximum height the column of water will reach? – user50180 Jun 15 '14 at 9:22
• What is the initial height of the tsunami wave? Why do you think water should increase in height when it hits the wall? – Deep Aug 6 '16 at 9:55

## 1 Answer

a liquid is not perfectly incompressible - see cavitation in fluids. still, i think we can assume that here . we can calculate the maximum possible height reachable. If i assume that the wall is perfectly rigid and it cannot move when the wave hits it, and if i also assume that the wave system is perfectly conservative , i.e: no energy is lost as heat or sound , then there should be no loss in total mechanical energy of the wave K + U . now as tpb261 said, the height reached will be maximum when the potential energy in maximum. so , if we know hte approximate velocity of the waves and by choosing a suitable reference frame , we can calculate the maximum height reachable.

• I'm not sure that cavitation is a good example to show that liquids aren't perfectly incompressible... – TZDZ Jan 13 '15 at 13:22