Constraining the characteristics of tsunami waves from deformable submarine slides

Abstract

As a marine hazard, submarine slope failures have the potential to directly destroy offshore infrastructure, and, if a tsunami is generated, it also endangers the life of those who live and work at the coastline. The hazard and risk from tsunamis generated by submarine mass failure is difficult to quantify and evaluate due to the problems to constrain the characteristics of the triggered submarine landslide, which introduces unquantifiable uncertainty to hazard assessments based on numerical modelling. To lower the uncertainty, we present a method that determines material parameters for the slide body to constrain the generated tsunami waves. Our method employs the distribution of landslide run-out masses and their comparison with simulations. It assumes that the slide material can be approximated by bulk values during the slide motion. To demonstrate our method, we make use of Valdes slide run-out masses off the Chilean coast. © The Authors 2013. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Royal Astronomical Society.