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Tsunami A/W for Pdf 10/4/01 5:58 Pm Page 1 Tsunami a/w for pdf 10/4/01 5:58 pm Page 1 6 hat is a tsunami*? A tsunami is a sea wave triggered A major submarine slope failure in the N. by a sudden movement on the seabed Atlantic could give rise to a tsunami large or at the surface. Such movement enough to flood major cities on the coast might be due to an earthquake, of America or Europe. An asteroid impact volcanic eruption, submarine landslide, anywhere in the Atlantic would have a or asteroid impact. Events like this similar effect. The tsunami produced by trigger wave motion in the overlying the Eltanin Asteroid impact (2.16 million water. If the shape and slope of the years ago off the southern tip of South seafloor are unfavourable, the resulting America) spread over the entire Pacific wave hitting coastlines may reach Ocean and the southern Atlantic, reaching gigantic proportions. Tsunamis are the coastlines of North and South America, particularly dangerous because coastal Australasia, Japan and Asia, and South areas tend to be densely populated. Africa within 24 hours. Tsunamis may cause immense damage to Tsunamis have played an important role in IPR/14-25C British Geological Survey. © NERC. All rights reserved low-lying coastlines. There may be great human history. A tsunami is thought to be loss of life in the so-called “inundation” or associated with the legend of Atlantis; “run-up” zone. In the 1990s, even with around 1628 BC, the eruption of the major improvements in education and Aegean island of Thera (Santorini) global warning systems, more than 4000 produced a 30m-high tsunami that people were killed by tsunamis and entire probably hastened the demise of the coastal communities have been wiped out. Minoan civilisation on Crete. The 1883 eruption of Krakatoa in the Sunda Strait Since 1990, 82 tsunamis have been (Indonesia), triggered tsunamis that killed reported, mostly from the Pacific Rim, more than 36,000 people. where the world’s largest earthquakes and most volcanoes occur. A quarter of the [* “Tsunami” is Japanese for “long wave deaths that can be attributed to volcanoes in a harbour”. Tsunamis are not the same thing as during the last 250 years were actually “tidal waves”, though the terms are sometimes used caused by their associated tsunamis. interchangeably. Tidal waves are caused by tides IPR/14-25C British Geological Survey. © NERC. All rights reserved Although there are no active volcanoes in rushing up narrowing coastal inlets, like the famous the UK and there is limited earthquake Severn Bore in the UK. Sometimes “tsunami” is used activity, it is at potential risk from tsunamis as a plural, without the “s”.] caused by submarine landslides (see The cost, below). ‘A major submarine slope failure in the N. Atlantic could give rise to a tsunami large enough to flood major cities on the coast of America or Europe.’ Tsunami a/w for pdf 10/4/01 5:58 pm Page 2 Tsunami in deep ocean Speed: 700 - 1000kph : Height: 45cm 106km IPR/14-25C British Geological Survey. © NERC. All rights reserved IPR/14-25C British Geological Survey. © NERC. All rights reserved The where, when and how Some examples of tsunami Geological faults discovered recently of tsunamis events from around the globe lying at up to 200m below the ocean north of Cape Hatteras (North Carolina) Tsunamis can be thought of as An earthquake of magnitude 7.5, threaten disaster to US East Coast. very large versions of the ripples between 3 and 8km offshore and in These faults traverse the edge of the caused by a single stone dropping water 50m deep, caused a tsunami continental shelf, where the sea floor into a pond. Tsunami events may that hit the coast of Costa Rica in begins to drop away to great depth. If likewise consist of many separate 1991. The sea first retreated by a a sediment pile here were to collapse wave fronts - though each up to a distance of 75m, before rushing back, downslope after an earthquake along hundred kilometres apart and completely destroying all buildings on these faults, the resulting tsunami perhaps thousands of kilometres the shoreline. would take only 20 minutes to reach long. The speed of tsunamis the coast of Virginia and North depends on the depth of the water On 17 July 1998, following a Carolina. through which they travel. In deep magnitude 7.0 earthquake, a tsunami water they can travel as fast as hit the northern coast of Papua New Slumps like this have occurred in the 1000km per hour, though at this Guinea killing more than 2500 people past off the Norwegian coast, and point they may be only a few and leaving thousands more missing. caused tsunamis that have struck the centimetres high. They are invisible The waves reached over 15m high, UK (see below). from the air and would not be felt destroying three villages and severely on board a ship. For this reason damaging four more. Steep-sided volcanic islands or coastal tsunamis cause few deaths in open volcanoes are often unstable and prone sea. At the time geologists believed it to collapse. Such scenarios exist in the unlikely that the earthquake alone had Canary Islands (Atlantic Ocean), Etna generated the tsunami. Further (Mediterranean), Reunion (Indian Tsunami approaching shore investigation revealed that a giant mass Ocean), and Hawaii (Pacific Ocean). Speed: 50 - 300kph : Height: 35m or more of sediment had slipped to the bottom of the continental slope in an In 1949 the west flank of the Cumbre earthquake-triggered “slump” Vieja volcano on the coast of La Palma (underwater landslide). (Canary Islands) began to slide towards the sea. Since then, a block of rock 1.5 - 3km The chances of a similar event 200 cubic kilometres in volume has occurring in the Atlantic are lower become detached. This is moving As a tsunami nears the coast, because the Atlantic does not seawards at about 1cm per year. however, the leading waves begin experience many large earthquakes. Towering 6km above the ocean floor, to travel more slowly in the However, this is no cause for this mass will one day fall into the shallower water. In water 20m complacency. In 1929 (November 18) a Atlantic. deep, the first waves to arrive will tsunami was triggered by a slump that have slowed to a mere 50km per was itself triggered by a 7.2 hour. Later waves then begin to earthquake off the coast of Grand ‘On 17 July 1998, following a magnitude 7.0 catch up, piling up water and Banks, Newfoundland. The disaster earthquake, a tsunami hit the northern coast of Papua creating a high, destructive, wave. caused $400,000 of damage, and 29 New Guinea killing more than 2500 people Thus, a wave that was only 45cm people were killed. The tsunami was high in deep water may become registered in South Carolina (US) and and leaving thousands more missing.’ 35m tall as it reaches land. even across the Atlantic in Portugal. Tsunami a/w for pdf 10/4/01 5:58 pm Page 3 6305/5-1 6305/5 6305/4 6305/7 IPR/14-25C British Geological Survey. © NERC. All rights reserved The resulting tsunami could, initially, The cost: UK under threat? Pictured above: A 3D image of the Storegga slide. be over 600m high and would have a global effect. It would reach the Tsunamis usually cause the greatest Scotland. There is evidence that the Caribbean islands and the US east damage near their source. This was Storegga Slide, for example (picture), coast within eight hours, leaving no true in Papua New Guinea (1998), has moved as many as three times in time to evacuate all the population. It Indonesia (1992, 1995) where the past. Were such a tsunami to is likely that the low-lying Caribbean thousands were killed, and Nicaragua happen today it would have a islands would be totally submerged by (1992) where around 100 people died. disastrous effect on such cities as the wave. Inverness, Aberdeen and Edinburgh. However, between 1946 and 1960 four Engineering work can create slopes tsunamis occurred whose effects were Many deep-water sediments off that may become unstable and fail - Pacific-wide. The 1960 Chilean Norway are rich in methane hydrate. causing tsunamis. On the evening of 3 earthquake (8.6 on the Richter scale) This substance, normally solid, is easily November 1994 in Skagway, Alaska, was the largest earthquake of the 20th disturbed - for example, by shaking or construction of a railroad dock Century. On the coast, closest to the heating. Earthquakes - or global extension is thought to have epicentre, tsunami waves measuring warming - may cause the hydrate to overloaded the sediments on which it 25m high arrived within 10 to 15 give off methane gas and trigger was built. About 1 million cubic minutes, killing at least two hundred slumping. metres of rubble and sediment slid into people, sinking all the boats, and the fjord. The resulting tsunami, up to flooding half a kilometre inland. Much of the UK’s east coast, facing 12 m high, surged across the harbour. Norway’s unstable offshore slopes, is In addition to the $20 million loss and The total number of lives lost from the low-lying. Many major eastern ports lie one death on the dock itself, around tsunami along the coast Peru-Chile on estuaries where the “funnel effect” two million dollars’ worth of damage coast is not known, but estimates could further increase tsunamis’ was caused to small boats and a ferry range between 330 to 2000. The destructive effects. Houses, factories terminal (unoccupied at the time).
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