Geology Reports⌕ Search
Home/Archive/USGS

USGS · 70037698

High tsunami frequency as a result of combined strike-slip faulting and coastal landslides

M.J. Hornbach·N. Braudy·R.W. Briggs·M.-H. Cormier·M.B. Davis·J.B. Diebold·N. Dieudonne·R. Douilly·C. Frohlich·S.P.S. Gulick·H. E. Johnson·P. Mann·C. McHugh·K. Ryan-Mishkin·C.S. Prentice·L. Seeber·C.C. Sorlien·M.S. Steckler·S.J. Symithe·F. W. Taylor·J. Templeton
View original source ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

Earthquakes on strike-slip faults can produce devastating natural hazards. However, because they consist predominantly of lateral motion, these faults are rarely associated with significant uplift or tsunami generation. And although submarine slides can generate tsunami, only a few per cent of all tsunami are believed to be triggered in this way. The 12 January Mw 7.0 Haiti earthquake exhibited primarily strike-slip motion but nevertheless generated a tsunami. Here we present data from a comprehensive field survey that covered the onshore and offshore area around the epicentre to document that modest uplift together with slope failure caused tsunamigenesis. Submarine landslides caused the most severe tsunami locally. Our analysis suggests that slide-generated tsunami occur an order-of-magnitude more frequently along the Gonave microplate than global estimates predict. Uplift was generated because of the earthquake?s location, where the Caribbean and Gonave microplates collide obliquely. The earthquake also caused liquefaction at several river deltas that prograde rapidly and are prone to failure. We conclude that coastal strike-slip fault systems such as the Enriquillog-Plantain Garden fault produce relief conducive to rapid sedimentation, erosion and slope failure, so that even modest predominantly strike-slip earthquakes can cause potentially catastrophic slide-generated tsunamig-a risk that is underestimated at present. ?? 2010 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.

Explore related subjects

Nature GeoscienceArticle

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

M.J. Hornbach, N. Braudy, R.W. Briggs, M.-H. Cormier, M.B. Davis, J.B. Diebold, N. Dieudonne, R. Douilly, C. Frohlich, S.P.S. Gulick, H. E. Johnson, P. Mann, C. McHugh, K. Ryan-Mishkin, C.S. Prentice, L. Seeber, C.C. Sorlien, M.S. Steckler, S.J. Symithe, F. W. Taylor, J. Templeton. 2010-10-10. High tsunami frequency as a result of combined strike-slip faulting and coastal landslides. https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo975

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related USGS reports

USGS2025

Lessons from 40 years of communicating volcanic risk during crises

Since the 1985 Nevado del Ruiz eruption that killed over 23,000 people in Armero, Colombia, risk communication has become central to volcanic crisis management. Despite the development of effective tools and programmes for volcanic risk communication, considerable challenges remain.

Nature Geoscience↗
USGS2025

Long-lived partial melt beneath Cascade volcanoes

Quantitative estimates of magma storage are fundamental to evaluating volcanic dynamics and hazards. Yet our understanding of subvolcanic magmatic plumbing systems and their variability remains limited. There is ongoing debate regarding the ephemerality of shallow magma storage and its volume relative to eruptive output, and so whether an upper-crustal magma body could be a sign of imminent eruption. Here we present seismic imaging of subvolcanic magmatic systems along the Cascade Range arc from systematically modelling the three-dimensional scattered wavefield of teleseismic body waves. This reveals compelling evidence of low-seismic-velocity bodies indicative of partial melt between 5 and 15 km depth beneath most Cascade Range volcanoes. The magma reservoirs beneath these volcanoes vary in depth, size and complexity, but upper-crustal magma bodies are widespread, irrespective of the eruptive flux or time since the last eruption of the associated volcano. This indicates that large volumes of melts can persist at shallow depth throughout eruption cycles beneath large volcanoes.

California, Oregon, Washington↗
USGS2024

Isotopic evidence against North Pacific Deep Water formation during late Pliocene warmth

Several modelling and observational studies suggest deep water formation in the subpolar North Pacific as a possible alternative mode of thermohaline circulation that occurred in the warm Pliocene, a time when global atmospheric partial pressure of carbon dioxide was like the modern atmosphere (~400 ppm). We test this hypothesis by measuring the δ 13 C of the benthic foraminifer Cibicidoides wuellerstorfi collected from northernmost Pacific mid-Piacenzian Warm Period (3.264–3.025 Myr ago) sediments. The data reveal progressively more isotopically negative dissolved inorganic carbon along a northward Equator-to-pole transect, the opposite of the expected Pliocene Pacific meridional overturning circulation signal. C. wuellerstorfi δ 13 C is also often more positive at the deeper Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) site 887 compared with the shallower ODP site 883, suggesting ‘bottom-up’ ventilation of the deep Pacific Ocean. We then present alkenone sea surface temperature and export-productivity data from ODP site 883, which suggest that late Pliocene subarctic North Pacific carbonate sedimentation was, at least in part, probably due to higher coccolithophore export production, rather than North Pacific Deep Water formation as previously argued. Therefore, we suggest it is unlikely that North Pacific Deep Water formation occurred in the mid-Piacenzian Warm Period, although a shallower overturning cell cannot be ruled out.

Nature Geoscience↗