Local well-posedness and wave breaking results for periodic solutions of a shallow water equation for waves of moderate amplitude

We study the local well-posedness of a periodic nonlinear equation for surface waves of moderate amplitude in shallow water. We use an approach proposed by Kato which is based on semigroup theory for quasi-linear equations. We also show that singularities for the model equation can occur only in the form of wave breaking, in particular surging breakers. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.