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Ship-Induced Solitary Riemann Waves Of Depression In Venice Lagoon, Kevin E. Parnall, Tarmo Soomere, Luca Zaggia, Artem Rodin, Giuliano Lorenzetti, John Rapaglia, Gian Marco Scarpaf

Biology Faculty Publications

We demonstrate that ships of moderate size, sailing at low depth Froude numbers (0.37–0.5) in a navigation channel surrounded by shallow banks, produce depressions with depths up to 2.5 m. These depressions (Bernoulli wakes) propagate as long-living strongly nonlinear solitary Riemann waves of depression substantial distances into Venice Lagoon. They gradually become strongly asymmetric with the rear of the depression becoming extremely steep, similar to a bore. As they are dynamically similar, air pressure fluctuations moving over variable-depth coastal areas could generate meteorological tsunamis with a leading depression wave followed by a devastating bore-like feature.