Marine hazards

Abstract

Marine hazards are generally similar to natural hazards on land like earthquakes, slope failures and mass flows. One of the main differences is rooted in the marine depositional environment which allows similar conditions to develop over large areas over long time spans. This leads to submarine slide volumes that can be several orders of magnitude larger than events on land. Another difference is the sediment-water interaction vs. sediment-air interaction. This may increase the damage potential, especially with respect to tsunami generation by major earthquakes along the subduction zones and submarine slope failures generating mass flows.