Megatsunami

Megatsunami
A megatsunami is a very large wave created by a large, sudden displacement of material into a body of water.
Megatsunamis have different features from ordinary tsunamis. Ordinary tsunamis are caused by underwater tectonic activity (movement of the earth's plates) and therefore occur along plate boundaries and as a result of earthquakes and the subsequent rise or fall in the sea floor that displaces a volume of water. Ordinary tsunamis exhibit shallow waves in the deep waters of the open ocean that increase dramatically in height upon approaching land to a maximum run-up height of around in the cases of the most powerful earthquakes. By contrast, megatsunamis occur when a large amount of material suddenly falls into water or anywhere near water (such as via a landslide, meteor impact, or volcanic eruption). They can have extremely large initial wave heights in the hundreds of metres, far beyond the height of any ordinary tsunami. These giant wave heights occur because the water is "splashed" upwards and outwards by the displacement.
Examples of modern megatsunamis include the one associated with the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa (volcanic eruption), the 1958 Lituya Bay megatsunami (a landslide which caused an initial wave of ), and the Vajont Dam landslide (caused by human activity destabilizing sides of valley). Prehistoric examples include the Storegga Slide (landslide), and the Chicxulub, Chesapeake Bay, and Eltanin meteor impacts.
Overview
A megatsunami is a tsunami with an initial wave amplitude (height) measured in many tens or hundreds of metres. A megatsunami is a separate class of event from an ordinary tsunami and is caused by different physical mechanisms.
Normal tsunamis result from displacement of the sea floor due to plate tectonics. Powerful earthquakes may cause the sea floor to displace vertically on the order of tens of metres, which in turn displaces the water column above and leads to the formation of a tsunami. Ordinary tsunamis have a small wave height offshore and generally pass unnoticed at sea, forming only a slight swell on the order of above the normal sea surface. In deep water it is possible that a tsunami could pass beneath a ship without the crew of the vessel noticing. As it approaches land, the wave height of an ordinary tsunami increases dramatically as the sea floor slopes upward and the base of the wave pushes the water column above it upwards. Ordinary tsunamis, even those associated with the most powerful strike-slip earthquakes, typically do not reach heights in excess of .
By contrast, megatsunamis are caused by landslides and other impact events that displace large volumes of water, resulting in waves that may exceed the height of an ordinary tsunami by tens or even hundreds of metres. Underwater earthquakes or volcanic eruptions do not normally generate megatsunamis, but landslides next to bodies of water resulting from earthquakes or volcanic eruptions can, since they cause a much larger amount of water displacement. If the landslide or impact occurs in a limited body of water, as happened at the Vajont Dam (1963) and in Lituya Bay (1958) then the water may be unable to disperse and one or more exceedingly large waves may result.
Determining a height range typical of megatsunamis is a complex and scientifically debated topic. This complexity is increased due to the fact that two different heights are often reported for tsunamis – the height of the wave itself in open water, and the height to which it surges when it encounters land. Depending upon the locale, this second or so-called "run-up height" can be several times larger than the wave's height just before reaching shore. While there is currently no minimum or average height classification for megatsunamis that is broadly accepted by the scientific community, the limited number of observed megatsunami events in recent history have all had run-up heights that exceeded . The megatsunami in Spirit Lake, Washington, USA that was caused by the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens reached , while the tallest megatsunami ever recorded (Lituya Bay in 1958) reached a run-up height of . It is also possible that much larger megatsunamis occurred in prehistory; researchers analyzing the geological structures left behind by prehistoric asteroid impacts have suggested that these events could have resulted in megatsunamis that exceeded in height.
Recognition of the concept of megatsunami
Before the 1950s, scientists had theorized that tsunamis orders of magnitude larger than those observed with earthquakes could have occurred as a result of ancient geological processes, but no concrete evidence of the existence of these "monster waves" had yet been gathered. Geologists searching for oil in Alaska in 1953 observed that in Lituya Bay, mature tree growth did not extend to the shoreline as it did in many other bays in the region. Rather, there was a band of younger trees closer to the shore. Forestry workers, glaciologists, and geographers call the boundary between these bands a trim line. Trees just above the trim line showed severe scarring on their seaward side, while those from below the trim line did not. This indicated that a large force had impacted all of the elder trees above the trim line, and presumably had killed off all the trees below it. Based on this evidence, the scientists hypothesized that there had been an unusually large wave or waves in the deep inlet. Because this is a recently deglaciated fjord with steep slopes and crossed by a major fault (the Fairweather Fault), one possibility was that this wave was a landslide-generated tsunami.
On July 9, 1958, a 7.8 strike-slip earthquake in southeast Alaska caused of rock and ice to drop into the deep water at the head of Lituya Bay. The block fell almost vertically and hit the water with sufficient force to create a wave that surged up the opposite side of the head of the bay to a height of , and was still many tens of metres high further down the bay when it carried eyewitnesses Howard Ulrich and his son Howard Jr. over the trees in their fishing boat. They were washed back into the bay and both survived.
Analysis of mechanism
The mechanism giving rise to megatsunamis was analysed for the Lituya Bay event in a study presented at the Tsunami Society in 1999; this model was considerably developed and modified by a second study in 2010.
Although the earthquake which caused the megatsunami was considered very energetic, it was determined that it could not have been the sole contributor based on the measured height of the wave. Neither water drainage from a lake, nor a landslide, nor the force of the earthquake itself were sufficient to create a megatsunami of the size observed, although all of these may have been contributing factors.
Instead, the megatsunami was caused by a combination of events in quick succession. The primary event occurred in the form of a large and sudden impulsive impact when about 40 million cubic yards of rock several hundred metres above the bay was fractured by the earthquake, and fell "practically as a monolithic unit" down the almost-vertical slope and into the bay. The rockfall also caused air to be "dragged along" due to viscosity effects, which added to the volume of displacement, and further impacted the sediment on the floor of the bay, creating a large crater. The study concluded that:
A 2010 model examined the amount of infill on the floor of the bay, which was many times larger than that of the rockfall alone, and also the energy and height of the waves, and the accounts given by eyewitnesses, concluded that there had been a "dual slide" involving a rockfall, which also triggered a release of 5 to 10 times its volume of sediment trapped by the adjacent Lituya Glacier, as an almost immediate and many times larger second slide, a ratio comparable with other events where this "dual slide" effect is known to have happened.
Examples
Prehistoric
The asteroid linked to the extinction of dinosaurs, which created the Chicxulub crater in the Yucatán Peninsula approximately 66 million years ago, would have caused a megatsunami over tall. The height of the tsunami was limited due to relatively shallow sea in the area of the impact; had the asteroid struck in the deep sea the megatsunami would have been tall. Among the mechanisms triggering megatsunamis, the direct impact, shockwaves, returning water in the crater with a new push outward and seismic waves with a magnitude up to ~11 A more recent simulation of the global effects of the Chicxulub megatsunami showed an initial wave height of , with later waves up to in height in the Gulf of Mexico, and up to in the North Atlantic and South Pacific; the discovery of mega-ripples in Louisiana via seismic imaging data, with average wavelengths of and average wave heights of , looks like to confirm it. David Shonting and Cathy Ezrailson propose an "Edgerton effect" mechanism generating the megatsunami, similar to a milk drop falling on water that triggers a crown-shape water column, with a comparable height to the Chicxulub impactor's, that means over for the initial seawater forced outward by the explosion and blast waves; then, its collapse triggers megatsunamis changing their height according to the different water depth, raising up to . Furthermore, the initial shock wave via impact triggered seismic waves producing giant landslides and slumping around the region (the largest known event deposits on Earth) with subsequently megatsunamis of various sizes, and seiches of in Tanis, away, part of a vast inland sea at the time and directly triggered via seismic shaking by the impact within a few minutes.
During the Messinian the coasts of northern Chile were likely struck by various megatsunamis.
A megatsunami affected the coast of south–central Chile in the Pliocene as evidenced by the sedimentary record of Ranquil Formation.
The Eltanin impact in the southeast Pacific Ocean 2.5 million years ago caused a megatsunami that was over high in southern Chile and the Antarctic Peninsula; the wave swept across much of the Pacific Ocean.
The northern half of the East Molokai Volcano on Molokai in Hawaii suffered a catastrophic collapse about 1.5 million years ago, generating a megatsunami, and now lies as a debris field scattered northward across the ocean bottom, while what remains on the island are the highest sea cliffs in the world. The megatsunami may have reached a height of near its origin and reached California and Mexico.
The existence of large scattered boulders in only one of the four marine terraces of Herradura Bay south of the Chilean city of Coquimbo has been interpreted by Roland Paskoff as the result of a mega-tsunami that occurred in the Middle Pleistocene.
In Hawaii, a megatsunami at least in height deposited marine sediments at a modern-day elevation of — above sea level at the time the wave struck — on Lanai about 105,000 years ago. The tsunami also deposited such sediments at an elevation of on Oahu, Molokai, Maui, and the island of Hawaii.
The collapse of the ancestral Mount Amarelo on Fogo in the Cape Verde Islands about 73,000 years ago triggered a megatsunami which struck Santiago, away, with a height of at least and a run-up height of over .
A major collapse of the western edge of the Lake Tahoe basin, a landslide with a volume of which formed McKinney Bay between 21,000 and 12,000 years ago, generated megatsunamis/seiche waves with an initial height of probably about and caused the lake's water to slosh back and forth for days. Much of the water in the megatsunamis washed over the lake's outlet at what is now Tahoe City, California, and flooded down the Truckee River, carrying house-sized boulders as far downstream as the California-Nevada border at what is now Verdi, California.
In the North Sea, the Storegga Slide caused a megatsunami approximately 8,200 years ago. It is estimated to have completely flooded the remainder of Doggerland.
Around 6370 BCE, a landslide on the eastern slope of Mount Etna in Sicily into the Mediterranean Sea triggered a megatsunami in the Eastern Mediterranean with an initial wave height along the eastern coast of Sicily of . It struck the Neolithic village of Atlit Yam off the coast of Israel with a height of , prompting the village's abandonment.
Around 5,650 B.C., a landslide in Greenland created a megatsunami with a run-up height on Alluttoq Island of .
Around 5,350 B.C., a landslide in Greenland created a megatsunami with a run-up height on Alluttoq Island of .
Historic
c. 2000 BC: Réunion
A landslide on Réunion island, to the east of Madagascar, may have caused a megatsunami.
c. 1600 BC: Santorini
The Thera volcano erupted, the force of the eruption causing megatsunamis which affected the whole Aegean Sea and the eastern Mediterranean Sea.
Modern
1674: Ambon Island, Banda Sea
On February 17, 1674, between 19:30 and 20:00 local time, an earthquake struck the Maluku Islands. Ambon Island received runup heights of , making the wave far too large to be caused by the quake itself. Instead, it was probably the result of an underwater landslide triggered by the earthquake. The quake and tsunami killed 2,347 people.
1731: Storfjorden, Norway
At 10:00 p.m. on January 8, 1731, a landslide with a volume of possibly fell from the mountain Skafjell from a height of into the Storfjorden opposite Stranda, Norway. The slide generated a megatsunami in height that struck Stranda, flooding the area for inland and destroying the church and all but two boathouses, as well as many boats. Damaging waves struck as far as way as Ørskog. The waves killed 17 people.
1741: Oshima-Ōshima, Sea of Japan
An eruption of Oshima-Ōshima occurred that lasted from 18 August 1741 to 1 May 1742. On 29 August 1741, a devastating tsunami occurred. It killed at least 1,467 people along a section of the coast, excluding native residents whose deaths were not recorded. Wave heights for Gankakezawa have been estimated at based on oral histories, while an estimate of is derived from written records. At Sado Island, over away, a wave height of has been estimated based on descriptions of the damage, while oral records suggest a height of . Wave heights have been estimated at even as far away as the Korean Peninsula. The source of the Kampo Tsunami is still debated among scientists, who claim an earthquake, debris avalanche, or some other phenomenon caused it. There is still no consensus in the debate but much evidence points to a landslide and debris avalanche along the flank of the volcano. An alternative hypothesis holds that an earthquake caused the tsunami. The event reduced the elevation of the peak of Hishiyama from . An estimated section of the volcano collapsed onto the seafloor north of the island; the collapse was similar in size to the collapse which occurred during the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens.
1756: Langfjorden, Norway
Just before 8:00 p.m. on February 22, 1756, a landslide with a volume of travelled at high speed from a height of on the side of the mountain Tjellafjellet into the Langfjorden about west of Tjelle, Norway, between Tjelle and Gramsgrø. The slide generated three megatsunamis in the Langfjorden and the Eresfjorden with heights of . The waves flooded the shore for inland in some areas, destroying farms and other inhabited areas. Damaging waves struck as far away as Veøy, from the landslide — where they washed inland above normal flood levels — and Gjermundnes, from the slide. The waves killed 32 people and destroyed 168 buildings, 196 boats, large amounts of forest, and roads and boat landings.
1792: Mount Unzen, Japan
On 21 May 1792, a flank of the Mayamaya dome of Mount Unzen collapsed after two large earthquakes. This had been preceded by a series of earthquakes coming from the mountain, beginning near the end of 1791. Initial wave heights were , but when they hit the other side of Ariake Bay, they were only in height, though one location received waves due to seafloor topography. The waves bounced back to Shimabara, which, when they hit, accounted for about half of the tsunami’s victims. According to estimates, 10,000 people were killed by the tsunami, and a further 5,000 were killed by the landslide. As of 2011, it was the deadliest known volcanic event in Japan.
1853–1854: Lituya Bay, Alaska
Sometime between August 1853 and May 1854, a megatsunami occurred in Lituya Bay in what was then Russian America. Studies of Lituya Bay between 1948 and 1953 first identified the event, which probably occurred because of a large landslide on the south shore of the bay near Mudslide Creek. The wave had a maximum run-up height of , flooding the coast of the bay up to inland.
1874: Lituya Bay, Alaska
A study of Lituya Bay in 1953 concluded that sometime around 1874, perhaps in May 1874, another megatsunami occurred in Lituya Bay in Alaska. Probably occurring because of a large landslide on the south shore of the bay in the Mudslide Creek Valley, the wave had a maximum run-up height of , flooding the coast of the bay up to inland.
1883: Krakatoa, Sunda Strait
The eruption of Krakatoa created pyroclastic flows which generated megatsunamis when they hit the waters of the Sunda Strait on 27 August 1883. The waves reached heights of up to 24 metres (79 feet) along the south coast of Sumatra and up to 42 metres (138 feet) along the west coast of Java. The tsunamis were powerful enough to kill over 30,000 people, and their effect was such that an area of land in Banten had its human settlements wiped out, and they never repopulated. (This area rewilded and was later declared a national park.) The steamship Berouw, a colonial gunboat, was flung over a mile (1.6 km) inland on Sumatra by the wave, killing its entire crew. Pyroclastic flows scorched several thousand people to death in southern Sumatra, and two ships reported severe winds and tephra, though they were too far away to be scorched. Two thirds of the island collapsed into the sea after the event. Groups of human skeletons were found floating on pumice numerous times, up to a year after the event. The eruption also generated what is often called the loudest sound in history, which was heard away on Rodrigues in the Indian Ocean.
1905: Lovatnet, Norway
On January 15, 1905, a landslide on the slope of the mountain Ramnefjellet with a volume of fell from a height of into the southern end of the lake Lovatnet in Norway, generating three megatsunamis of up to in height. The waves destroyed the villages of Bødal and Nesdal near the southern end of the lake, killing 61 people — half their combined population — and 261 farm animals and destroying 60 houses, all the local boathouses, and 70 to 80 boats, one of which — the tourist boat Lodalen — was thrown inland by the last wave and wrecked. At the northern end of the long lake, a wave measured at almost destroyed a bridge.
1905: Disenchantment Bay, Alaska
On July 4, 1905, an overhanging glacier — since known as the Fallen Glacier — broke loose, slid out of its valley, and fell down a steep slope into Disenchantment Bay in Alaska, clearing vegetation along a path wide. When it entered the water, it generated a megatsunami which broke tree branches above ground level away. The wave killed vegetation to a height of at a distance of from the landslide, and it reached heights of from at different locations on the coast of Haenke Island. At a distance of from the slide, observers at Russell Fjord reported a series of large waves that caused the water level to rise and fall for a half-hour.
1934: Tafjorden, Norway
On April 7, 1934, a landslide on the slope of the mountain Langhamaren with a volume of fell from a height of about into the Tafjorden in Norway, generating three megatsunamis, the last and largest of which reached a height of between on the opposite shore. Large waves struck Tafjord and Fjørå. The waves killed 23 people at Tafjord, where the last and largest wave was tall and struck at an estimated speed of , flooding the town for inland and killing 23 people. At Fjørå, waves reached , destroyed buildings, removed all soil, and killed 17 people. Damaging waves struck as far as away, and waves were detected at a distance of from the landslide. One survivor suffered serious injuries requiring hospitalization.
1936: Lovatnet, Norway
On September 13, 1936, a landslide on the slope of the mountain Ramnefjellet with a volume of fell from a height of into the southern end of the lake Lovatnet in Norway, generating three megatsunamis, the largest of which reached a height of . The waves destroyed all farms at Bødal and most farms at Nesdal — completely washing away 16 farms — as well as 100 houses, bridges, a power station, a workshop, a sawmill, several grain mills, a restaurant, a schoolhouse, and all boats on the lake. A wave struck the southern end of the long lake and caused damaging flooding in the Loelva River, the lake's northern outlet. The waves killed 74 people and severely injured 11.
1936: Lituya Bay, Alaska
On October 27, 1936, a megatsunami occurred in Lituya Bay in Alaska with a maximum run-up height of in Crillon Inlet at the head of the bay. The four eyewitnesses to the wave in Lituya Bay itself all survived and described it as between high. The maximum inundation distance was inland along the north shore of the bay. The cause of the megatsunami remains unclear, but may have been a submarine landslide.
1958: Lituya Bay, Alaska, US
On July 9, 1958, a giant landslide at the head of Lituya Bay in Alaska, caused by an earthquake, generated a wave that washed out trees to a maximum elevation of at the entrance of Gilbert Inlet. The wave surged over the headland, stripping trees and soil down to bedrock, and surged along the fjord which forms Lituya Bay, destroying two fishing boats anchored there and killing two people. This was the highest wave of any kind ever recorded. The subsequent study of this event led to the establishment of the term "megatsunami," to distinguish it from ordinary tsunamis.
1963: Vajont Dam, Italy
On October 9, 1963, a landslide above Vajont Dam in Italy produced a surge that overtopped the dam and destroyed the villages of Longarone, Pirago, Rivalta, Villanova, and Faè, killing nearly 2,000 people. This is currently the only known example of a megatsunami that was indirectly caused by human activities.
1980: Spirit Lake, Washington, US
On May 18, 1980, the upper of Mount St. Helens collapsed, creating a landslide. This released the pressure on the magma trapped beneath the summit bulge which exploded as a lateral blast, which then released the pressure on the magma chamber and resulted in a plinian eruption.
One lobe of the avalanche surged onto Spirit Lake, causing a megatsunami which pushed the lake waters in a series of surges, which reached a maximum height of above the pre-eruption water level (about ASL). Above the upper limit of the tsunami, trees lie where they were knocked down by the pyroclastic surge; below the limit, the fallen trees and the surge deposits were removed by the megatsunami and deposited in Spirit Lake.
2015: Taan Fiord, Alaska, US
At 8:19 p.m. Alaska Daylight Time on October 17, 2015, the side of a mountain collapsed, at the head of Taan Fiord, a finger of Icy Bay in Alaska. Some of the resulting landslide came to rest on the toe of Tyndall Glacier, but about of rock with a volume of about fell into the fjord. The landslide generated a megatsunami with an initial height of about that struck the opposite shore of the fjord, with a run-up height there of .
Over the next 12 minutes, the wave travelled down the fjord at a speed of up to , with run-up heights of over in the upper fjord to between or more in its middle section, and or more at its mouth. Still probably tall when it entered Icy Bay, the tsunami inundated parts of Icy Bay's shoreline with run-ups of before dissipating into insignificance at distances of from the mouth of Taan Fiord, although the wave was detected away.
Occurring in an uninhabited area, the event was unwitnessed, and several hours passed before the signature of the landslide was noticed on seismographs at Columbia University in New York City.
2017: Karrat Fjord, Greenland
On June 17, 2017, of rock on the mountain Ummiammakku fell from an elevation of roughly into the waters of the Karrat Fjord. The event was thought to be caused by melting ice that destabilised the rock. It registered as a magnitude 4.1 earthquake and created a wave. The settlement of Nuugaatsiaq, away, saw run-up heights of . Eleven buildings were swept into the sea, four people died, and 170 residents of Nuugaatsiaq and Illorsuit were evacuated because of a danger of additional landslides and waves. The tsunami was noted at settlements as far as away.
2020: Paatuut, Greenland
On November 21, 2020, a landslide composed of of rock with a mass of 260,000,000 tons fell from an elevation of at Paatuut on the Nuussuaq Peninsula on the west coast of Greenland, reaching a speed of . About of material with a mass of 87,000,000 tons entered Sullorsuaq Strait (known in Danish as Vaigat Strait), generating a megatsunami. The wave had a run-up height of near the landslide and at Qullissat, the site of an abandoned settlement across the strait on Disko Island, away, where it inundated the coast as far as inland. Refracted energy from the tsunami created a wave that destroyed boats at the closest populated village, Saqqaq, on the southwestern coast of the Nuussuaq Peninsula from the landslide.
2020: Elliot Creek, British Columbia, Canada
On 28 November 2020, unseasonably heavy rainfall triggered a landslide of into a glacial lake at the head of Elliot Creek. The sudden displacement of water generated a high megatsunami that cascaded down Elliot Creek and the Southgate River to the head of Bute Inlet, covering a total distance of over . The event generated a magnitude 5.0 earthquake and destroyed over of salmon habitat along Elliot Creek.
Potential future megatsunamis
In a BBC television documentary broadcast in 2000, experts said that they thought that a landslide on a volcanic ocean island is the most likely future cause of a megatsunami. The size and power of a wave generated by such means could produce devastating effects, travelling across oceans and inundating up to inland from the coast. This research was later found to be flawed. The documentary was produced before the experts' scientific paper was published and before responses were given by other geologists. There have been megatsunamis in the past, and future megatsunamis are possible but current geological consensus is that these are only local. A megatsunami in the Canary Islands would diminish to a normal tsunami by the time it reached the continents. Also, the current consensus for La Palma is that the region conjectured to collapse is too small and too geologically stable to do so in the next 10,000 years, although there is evidence for past megatsunamis local to the Canary Islands thousands of years ago. Similar remarks apply to the suggestion of a megatsunami in Hawaii.
British Columbia
Some geologists consider an unstable rock face at Mount Breakenridge, above the north end of the giant fresh-water fjord of Harrison Lake in the Fraser Valley of southwestern British Columbia, Canada, to be unstable enough to collapse into the lake, generating a megatsunami that might destroy the town of Harrison Hot Springs (located at its south end).
Canary Islands
Geologists Dr. Simon Day and Dr. Steven Neal Ward consider that a megatsunami could be generated during an eruption of Cumbre Vieja on the volcanic ocean island of La Palma, in the Canary Islands, Spain. Day and Ward hypothesize that if such an eruption causes the western flank to fail, a megatsunami could be generated.
In 1949, an eruption occurred at three of the volcano's vents—Duraznero, Hoyo Negro, and Llano del Banco. A local geologist, Juan Bonelli-Rubio, witnessed the eruption and recorded details on various phenomenon related to the eruption. Bonelli-Rubio visited the summit area of the volcano and found that a fissure about long had opened on the east side of the summit. As a result, the western half of the volcano—which is the volcanically active arm of a triple-armed rift—had slipped approximately downwards and westwards towards the Atlantic Ocean.
In 1971, an eruption occurred at the Teneguía vent at the southern end of the sub-aerial section of the volcano without any movement. The section affected by the 1949 eruption is currently stationary and does not appear to have moved since the initial rupture.
Cumbre Vieja remained dormant until an eruption began on September 19, 2021.
It is likely that several eruptions would be required before failure would occur on Cumbre Vieja. The western half of the volcano has an approximate volume of and an estimated mass of . If it were to catastrophically slide into the ocean, it could generate a wave with an initial height of about at the island, and a likely height of around at the Caribbean and the Eastern North American seaboard when it runs ashore eight or more hours later. Tens of millions of lives could be lost in the cities and/or towns of St. John's, Halifax, Boston, New York, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Miami, Havana and the rest of the eastern coasts of the United States and Canada, as well as many other cities on the Atlantic coast in Europe, South America and Africa. The likelihood of this happening is a matter of vigorous debate.
Geologists and volcanologists are in general agreement that the initial study was flawed. The current geology does not suggest that a collapse is imminent. Indeed, it seems to be geologically impossible right now—the region conjectured as prone to collapse is too small and too stable to collapse within the next 10,000 years. A closer study of deposits left in the ocean from previous landslides suggests that a landslide would likely occur as a series of smaller collapses rather than a single landslide. A megatsunami does seem possible locally in the distant future as there is geological evidence from past deposits suggesting that a megatsunami occurred with marine material deposited above sea level between 32,000 and 1.75 million years ago. This seems to have been local to Gran Canaria.
Day and Ward have admitted that their original analysis of the danger was based on several worst case assumptions. A 2008 study examined this scenario and concluded that while it could cause a megatsunami, it would be local to the Canary Islands and would diminish in height, becoming a smaller tsunami by the time it reached the continents as the waves interfered and spread across the oceans.
Hawaii
Sharp cliffs and associated ocean debris at the Kohala Volcano, Lanai and Molokai indicate that landslides from the flank of the Kilauea and Mauna Loa volcanoes in Hawaii may have triggered past megatsunamis, most recently at 120,000 BP. A tsunami event is also possible, with the tsunami potentially reaching up to about in height According to the documentary National Geographic's Ultimate Disaster: Tsunami, if a big landslide occurred at Mauna Loa or the Hilina Slump, a tsunami would take only thirty minutes to reach Honolulu. There, hundreds of thousands of people could be killed as the tsunami could level Honolulu and travel inland. Also, the West Coast of America and the entire Pacific Rim could potentially be affected.
Other research suggests that such a single large landslide is not likely. Instead, it would collapse as a series of smaller landslides.
In 2018, shortly after the beginning of the 2018 lower Puna eruption, a National Geographic article responded to such claims with "Will a monstrous landslide off the side of Kilauea trigger a monster tsunami bound for California? Short answer: No."
In the same article, geologist Mika McKinnon stated:
Another volcanologist, Janine Krippner, added:
Despite this, evidence suggests that catastrophic collapses do occur on Hawaiian volcanoes and generate local tsunamis.
Norway
Although known earlier to the local population, a crack wide and in length in the side of the mountain Åkerneset in Norway was rediscovered in 1983 and attracted scientific attention. It since has widened at a rate of per year. Geological analysis has revealed that a slab of rock thick and at an elevation stretching from is in motion. Geologists assess that an eventual catastrophic collapse of of rock into Sunnylvsfjorden is inevitable and could generate megatsunamis of in height on the fjord′s opposite shore. The waves are expected to strike Hellesylt with a height of , Geiranger with a height of , Tafjord with a height of , and many other communities in Norway's Sunnmøre district with a height of several metres, and to be noticeable even at Ålesund. The predicted disaster is depicted in the 2015 Norwegian film The Wave.
See also
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami
List of tsunamis
Tsunamis in lakes
Volcanic tsunami
References
Footnotes
Bibliography
Lander, James F. Tsunamis Affecting Alaska 1737–1996. Boulder, Colorado: NOAA National Geophysical Data Center, September 1996.
Further reading
BBC 2 TV; 2000. Transcript "Mega-tsunami; Wave of Destruction", Horizon. First screened 21.30 hrs, Thursday, 12 October 2000.
Rihm, R; Krastel, S. & CD109 Shipboard Scientific Party; 1998. Volcanoes and landslides in the Canaries. National Environment Research Council News. Summer, 16–17.
Sandom, J.G., 2010, The Wave — A John Decker Thriller, Cornucopia Press, 2010. A thriller in which a megatsunami is intentionally created when a terrorist detonates a nuclear bomb on La Palma in the Canary Islands.
Ortiz, J.R., Bonelli Rubio, J.M., 1951. La erupción del Nambroque (junio-agosto de 1949). Madrid: Talleres del Instituto Geográfico y Catastral, 100 p., 1h. pleg.;23 cm
External links
Mega Tsunami: history, causes, effects
World's Biggest Tsunami: The largest recorded tsunami with a wave 1720 feet tall in Lituya Bay, Alaska.
Benfield Hazard Research Centre
BBC — Mega-tsunami: Wave of Destruction BBC Two program broadcast 12 October 2000
La Palma threat "over-hyped" , BBC News, 29 October 2004
Mega-hyped Tsunami story A detailed of analysis demolishing the La Palma Tsunami speculation.
Water waves
Geological hazards
Tsunami
Oceanographical terminology