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The 2022 eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano excited an atmospheric Lamb wave, which induced a fast-traveling tsunami. This tsunami was driven by the pressure-forced wave traveling at the speed of the Lamb wave and, thus, was much faster than conventional tsunamis. This was the first case in which ocean bottom monitoring systems widely observed an air pressure-induced tsunami. We found that the pressure-forced waves split and generated ocean gravity waves after passing the Japan Trench based on the S-net data. Our simulations show that changes in water depth can amplify or decrease the pressure-forced wave. Simultaneously, an ocean gravity wave is generated due to the conservation of water volume. Because the ocean gravity wave was slower than the pressure-forced wave near Japan, it was separated from, and traveled behind, the pressure-forced wave. We explained the wave separation phenomenon and reproduced the waveforms of different splitting stages observed by the stations near the Japan Trench. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Meteotsunamis (forced waves) triggered by atmospheric disturbances of Lamb waves due to the 2022 Hunga–Tonga volcanic eruption have been observed in coastal areas surrounding the Pacific Ocean. However, the spatiotemporal evolution of the wavefield of meteotsunamis and meteotsunami-induced free waves remains elusive. Here, we show the detailed spatial distribution of the propagation velocities and directions of these waves in the bathymetric slope area between the Japan Trench and nearshore, using a dense array of 150 absolute pressure gauges deployed at water depths of 100–8000 m. Records show that free wave components (i.e., tsunamis) were generated when the forced wave was propagating over the slope area. Amplitudes of the generated free waves are large in the southern half of the slope area, where the equi-arrival time contour lines are densely paralleled. Such amplifications occur due to the relationship between the incoming direction of Lamb waves and the gradient of the bathymetric slope. This indicates that, if meteotsunamis excited by Lamb waves due to future volcanic eruptions come from different directions to this region, a different spatial pattern of free wave amplification on a regional scale is obtained in the bathymetric slope areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]