Megatsunamis @ the London `Catastrophes` conferenceAugust 17, 2002The modern world appears secure in its knowledge of hazards. However tsunamis today are smaller and less frequent than they were in prehistory. Professor Ted Bryant argues geological evidence along the Australian coast is testament to past catastrophic tsunamis. The size of these tsunamis is beyond the capability of earthquakes, while their regional extent rules out submarine landslides. Only meteorite or comet impacts with the ocean, he believes, could generate tsunamis big enough to produce these features. Radiocarbon dating along the southeast coast of Australia indicates that these giant tsunamis have occurred at a periodicity of around 400-500 years throughout the Late Holocene. One recent tsunami around AD 1500 stands out - an event that affected over 400 km of the Australian coastline and is also recorded on the east coast of New Zealand and on Lord Howe Island in the middle of the Tasman Sea. Aboriginal and Maori legends allude to a cosmogenic source for this event (or one like it). The Maori legends can be dated around AD 1500 based upon the evidence for occupational burning on the South Island. In addition, cultural changes among Aborigines in Australia after this time lend support to the idea that there was a substantial tsunami. Presently, the point of impact of the bolide responsible for the disaster has not been determined, but it probably lies southeast of New Zealand. If the observed periodicity of cosmogenic tsunamis in the southwest Pacific region is valid, then today's coastlines exist tenuously within a narrowing temporal window. Although the Pacific coastlines regularly experiences destructive tsunamis, the shores of the North Atlantic are a far less likely location for past megatsunamis. However, around 7000 years ago, one of the world`s largest submarine slides triggered a giant tsunami that travelled across the North Atlantic and Norwegian Seas. It is not known if the slide was generated by a large offshore earthquake or by gas release from within the slide sediments; but deposits from the resulting tsunami have been found in western Norway, Scotland, Faeroe Isles and as far south as eastern England. Professor Alastair Dawson reports on new computer modelling of the slide and tsunami estimates that show the giant wave had an average velocity of c. 35m/s and that the bulk of the sediment mass moved in as little as two days. Modelling of the tsunami runup at the coast suggests that in western Norway, the generation of the tsunami was associated with an initial drawdown (lowering) of sea level at the coast in the order of -8m quickly followed by a sea surface rise in the order of +16m. Geological studies of coastal deposits in Scotland and Norway attributable to the tsunami indicate that runup varied with the shape of the local coastline, but that in parts of the Shetland Isles, it may have been as much as between +25/+30m above sea level. Geological Society of London, The |
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| Related Tsunami Current Events and Tsunami News Articles On the crest of wave energy The ocean is a potentially vast source of electric power, yet as engineers test new technologies for capturing it, the devices are plagued by battering storms, limited efficiency, and the need to be tethered to the seafloor. Fortuitous research provides first detailed documentation of tsunami erosion Tsunamis are among the most-devastating natural calamities. These earthquake-generated waves can quickly engulf low-lying land and bring widespread destruction and death. They can deposit sand and debris far inland from where they came ashore. Tsunami waves reasonably likely to strike Israel "There is a likely chance of tsunami waves reaching the shores of Israel," says Dr. Beverly Goodman of the Leon H. Charney School of Marine Sciences at the University of Haifa following an encompassing geo-archaeological study at the port of Caesarea. "Tsunami events in the Mediterranean do occur less frequently than in the Pacific Ocean, but our findings reveal a moderate rate of recurrence," she says. Tsunami evacuation buildings: another way to save lives in the Pacific Northwest Some time soon, a powerful earthquake will trigger a massive tsunami that will flood the Pacific Northwest, destroying homes and threatening the lives of tens of thousands of people, says Yumei Wang, a geotechnical engineer at the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries in Portland. New publication offers security tips for WiMAX networks Government agencies and other organizations planning to use WiMAX- Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access-networks can get technical advice on improving the security of their systems from a draft computer security guide prepared by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Scientists return from first ever riser drilling operations in seismogenic zone he Deep-sea Drilling Vessel CHIKYU successfully completed riser drilling operations on Aug. 31, for IODP Expedition 319, Stage 2 of the Nankai Trough Seismogenic Zone Experiment (NanTroSEIZE). Ocean-drilling expedition cites new evidence related to origin and evolution of seismogenic faults New research about what triggers earthquakes, authored by Michael Strasser of Bremen University, Germany, with colleagues from the USA, Japan, China, France, and Germany, will appear in the Aug. 16 2009 issue of Nature Geoscience. A new cloaking method University of Utah mathematicians developed a new cloaking method, and it's unlikely to lead to invisibility cloaks like those used by Harry Potter or Romulan spaceships in "Star Trek." Instead, the new method someday might shield submarines from sonar, planes from radar, buildings from earthquakes, and oil rigs and coastal structures from tsunamis. Pacific tsunami threat greater than expected The potential for a huge Pacific Ocean tsunami on the West Coast of America may be greater than previously thought, according to a new study of geological evidence along the Gulf of Alaska coast. Between the devil and the deep blue sea Expansion of coastal cities is accompanied by a decline in the quality of life of the people, which was the reason they moved to the coastal zone instead of bringing growing welfare to the inhabitants. More Tsunami Current Events and Tsunami News Articles |
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