Abstract
A method to identify the source area of tsunamis is presented assuming that the source area is elliptical in shape. The traveling time of the first arriving wave of a tsunami is solved as the shortest mute problem in which the submarine topography is given. Some numerical experiments have been carried out to discuss the validity of the proposed method. Sequently, it has been applied to identify the source area of the tunamis accompanied by some historical earthquakes, compared with the results by the inverse refraction diagram.
