EGU Journal Logos (RGB) Open Access Open Access Open Access Advances in Annales Nonlinear Processes Geosciences Geophysicae in Geophysics Open Access Open Access Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 13, 625–648, 2013 Natural Hazards Natural Hazards www.nat-hazards-earth-syst-sci.net/13/625/2013/ doi:10.5194/nhess-13-625-2013 and Earth System and Earth System © Author(s) 2013. CC Attribution 3.0 License. Sciences Sciences Discussions Open Access Open Access Atmospheric Atmospheric Chemistry Chemistry and Physics and Physics Extreme wave events in Ireland: 14 680 BP–2012 Discussions Open Access Open Access Atmospheric Atmospheric L. O’Brien1, J. M. Dudley2, and F. Dias1,3 Measurement Measurement 1School of Mathematical Sciences, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland 2Institut FEMTO-ST, UMR 6174 CNRS-Universite´ de Franche-Comte,´ Besanc¸on, France Techniques Techniques 3Centre de Mathematiques´ et de Leurs Applications (CMLA), Ecole Normale Superieure´ de Cachan, Cachan, France Discussions Open Access Open Access Correspondence to: F. Dias ([email protected]) Biogeosciences Biogeosciences Received: 9 July 2012 – Published in Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss.: – Discussions Revised: 15 January 2013 – Accepted: 31 January 2013 – Published: 11 March 2013 Open Access Open Access Abstract. The island of Ireland is battered by waves from all ern Ireland. From an oceanographic perspective, however, it Climate sides, most ferociously on the west coast as the first port of is necessary to consider the full designatedClimate continental shelf call for waves travelling across the Atlantic Ocean. However, of Ireland, which is of courseof very the much Past bigger and which of the Past when discussing ocean events relevant to the nation of Ire- indeed is one of the largest seabed territories in Europe, as Discussions land, one must actually consider its significantly larger desig- shown in Fig. 1. Open Access nated continental shelf, which is one of the largest seabed ter- But even when it is possible to delimit a geographical area, Open Access ritories in Europe. With this expanded definition, it is not sur- a problem that arises immediately when attempting to pre- Earth System prising that Ireland has been subject to many oceanic events pare a catalogue of eventsEarth is that of System the particular time frame which could be designated as “extreme”; in this paper we of interest, and the differing fidelityDynamics of the observations. In Dynamics present what we believe to be the first catalogue of such the interest of completeness, we have tried to include as many Discussions events, dating as far back as the turn of the last ice age. events as we have been able to document, albeit that some- times we summarise observations from the distant past and Open Access Open Access from testimonials where theGeoscientific reliability of the observations Geoscientific cannot be verified. ButInstrumentation when viewed as a whole, it is clear Instrumentation 1 Introduction that there is a great deal ofMethods evidence supporting and a long his- Methods and tory of large ocean wavesData and currents Systems on the oceans sur- The study of extreme wave events on the ocean is a rounding Ireland as well as on its coast. This said, of course Data Systems rapidly expanding area of research worldwide that links to- such a study cannot be exhaustive, but we have attempted Discussions Open Access gether sailors, marine officers, oceanographers, physicists Open Access to be as complete as possible at the time of preparation. In Geoscientific and mathematicians around a common aim of understand- fact, our desire to be comprehensiveGeoscientific has encouraged us to in- ing the formation and dynamics of large ocean waves and clude in this overview a short section including results from Model Development currents. Although much work in this area is based on mod- Model Development legend, and whilst the scientific basis of such events is less Discussions elling and experiments in controlled wave tanks, the starting certain than the other results we present, we believe that such point of all studies in this field is of course observation in Open Access results are complementary to the more reliableOpen Access observations the natural world. To this end, several reviews of observa- described in the rest of thisHydrology paper. and Hydrology and tional ocean events which could be classed as extreme have This paper is organised as follows. In Sect. 2, we first clar- appeared in the literature (Kharif and Pelinovsky, 2003; Tinti ify our use of terminologyEarth to describe System different categories of Earth System et al., 2004; Ambraseys and Synolakis, 2010; Nikolkina and “wave” events as storm waves,Sciences tsunamis and rogue waves. Sciences Didenkulova, 2011), but there is clearly the need for as much In Sect. 3, we present the main catalogue of documented detailed cataloguing as possible. The purpose of this paper is Discussions Open Access wave events in Ireland listed under these threeOpen Access categories, to present such an overview for the nation of Ireland. whilst Sect. 4 presents additional related descriptions, includ- Ireland of course refers to the well-known island situated ing those from legend. Section 5 presents a discussion of how Ocean Science on the western edge of Europe, which we consider here in Ocean Science these wave events may relate to boulder deposits in Ireland, Discussions its entirety including both the Republic of Ireland and North- Open Access Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. Open Access Solid Earth Solid Earth Discussions Open Access Open Access The Cryosphere The Cryosphere Discussions Manuscript prepared for Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci. with version 4.2 of the LATEX class copernicus.cls. Date: 15 January 2013 Extreme wave events in Ireland: 14,680 BP - 2012 Laura O’Brien1, John M. Dudley2, and Fred´ eric´ Dias1,3 1School of Mathematical Sciences, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland 2Institut FEMTO-ST, UMR 6174 CNRS-Universite´ de Franche-Comte,´ Besanc¸on, France 3Centre de Mathematiques´ et de Leurs Applications (CMLA), Ecole Normale Superieure´ de Cachan, Cachan, France Abstract. The island of Ireland is battered by waves from all necessary to consider the full designated continental Shelf sides, most ferociously on the west coast as the first port of of Ireland which is of course very much bigger and which call for waves travelling across the Atlantic Ocean. However, 35 indeed is one of the largest seabed territories in Europe, as when discussing ocean events relevant to the nation of Ire- shown in Fig. 1. 5 land, one626 must actually consider its significantly larger des- L. O’Brien et al.: Extreme wave events in Ireland ignated continental shelf which is one of the largest seabed territorieswhich in Europe. are of particular With this relevance expanded to cliff-top definition, deposits it on is the The$Porcupine$Basin$ The$Barra$Fan$ not surprisingwest coast.that Ireland Finally has in Sect. been 6 subject we present to many an overall oceanic conclu- events whichsion could and make be designated suggestions asfor “extreme”; further directions in this of paper research. 10 we present what we believe to be the first catalogue of such events, dating2 Categories as far back of as ocean the wavesturn of the last ice age. We consider “extreme wave” events in Ireland in three broad categories that we discuss in more detail below: storm waves, 1 Introductiontsunamis, and rogue waves. In the context of quoting from various sources as we do in the following section, it must be The studyrecognized of extreme that the wave descriptions events used on by the the public ocean and is media a 15 rapidly-expandingdo not always area follow of research precise scientific worldwide definitions, that links but to- we at- gether sailors,tempt to marine – wherever officers, possible oceanographers, – refer back to the physicists definitions in and mathematiciansthis section when around commenting a common on the aim results of understand- in the catalogue below. ing the formation and dynamics of large ocean waves and Storms are very common in Ireland (driven by the strong 0"""""60""""120"""180"""240"""300"km" currents. Althoughwinds on the much west work coast in in this particular), area is but based tsunamis on mod- are not 20 eling andcommon experiments due to in the controlled location of wave Ireland tanks, relative the to starting the tectonic Fig. 1. A snapshot from The Real Map of Ireland from the Irish point of allplate studies boundaries. in this In field fact, is the of number course of observation earthquakes docu-in Fig.Marine 1. A Institute, snapshotwww.marine.ie from The Real, with Map the locations of Ireland of the from Barra The Fan Irish the naturalmented world. in Ireland To this since end, 1760 several is just reviews over 100, of and observa- the largest Marineand the Institute, Porcupinewww.marine.ie Basin overlaid., with The red the line locations indicates of the the current Barra Fan tional oceanof these events has which a magnitude could of be only classed 4.4. However, as extreme earthquakes have anddesignated the Porcupine Irish continental Basin overlaid. shelf, which The red is one line of indicatesthe largest the seabed current appeared inand the landslides literature very (Kharif far from and Ireland Pelinovsky, itself can 2003; still Tinti generate designatedterritories Irish in Europe. continental shelf which is one of the largest seabed tsunamis that travel great distances without losing much en- 25 et al., 2004; Ambraseys and Synolakis, 2010; Nikolkina and territories in Europe. Didenkulova,ergy, 2011), and events but like there this is have clearly affected the need Ireland for in as the much past. There are two historical submarine mass movement events 2.1 Storm waves detailed cataloguing as possible. The purpose of this paper is of particular interest: the first occurred in the Barra Fan, off- But even when it is possible to delimit a geographical area, to presentshore such north-west an overview of Ireland for the (Owen nation et of al.