TSUMOSLIDE

submarine landSLIDEs and TSUnami MOdeling on the margins of the Mediterranean Sea

 Partecipanti

Mappa

 Word cloud

Esplora la "nuvola delle parole (Word Cloud) per avere un'idea di massima del progetto.

 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'In open seas geohazards are usually caused by short-term geological events that affect littoral infrastructures and indirectly threaten coastal human communities. Submarine landslides are considered as an important source for marine geohazards due, amongst others, to their capacity to generate devastating tsunami waves and cause catastrophic human life and infrastructure loss. Several European Community funded projects have been set up, or they are currently being implemented, that attempt to understand their triggering mechanisms, post failure evolution and possible tsunami generation. The devastating Indian Ocean tsunami of December 26th, 2004 stressed the need for assessing geohazards in vulnerable coastal areas. The most common mechanisms of tsunami generation involves earthquakes, but local tsunamis from submarine landslides are also possible with little chances for establishing early warning systems against these type of tsunamis. TSUMOSLIDE (submarine landSLIDEs and TSUnami MOdeling on the margins of the Mediterranean Sea) aims to understand the triggering sources of submarine landslides, their geological setting, and mathematically model their behavior along the slope, their possible tsunamigenesis, propagation and behavior while approaching coastal areas. Numerical modeling is useful in predicting future tsunami impact and flooding limits in specific coastal locations and communities and therefore reduction in life loss due to such devastating phenomenon. TSUMOSLIDE will provide fundamental data and an accurate model for tsunami propagation in the coastal areas of the Mediterranean Sea. It will help, inline with the European scientific community, to develop tools that can be used by disaster management authorities for effective tsunami prevention plans in Europe, in particular, near densely populated coastal cities.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

An underwater landslide could cause a tsunami and wreak havoc on shore. The Mediterranean isn't immune to such scenarios, but improved knowledge can help manage them.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Below the deep blue of the Mediterranean there are a number of potential geological hazards, or geohazards, lurking such as the possibility of tsunamis and underwater landslides. The EU-funded project 'Submarine landslides and tsunami modelling on the margins of the Mediterranean Sea' (Tsumoslide) aimed to investigate these hazards. It identified danger areas that could cause more trouble in the future and sought to model submarine landslides, as well as their impact.

The project examined the behaviour of waves and tidal waves that come close to the shore and identified high-risk areas that should be addressed in national geohazard plans. To achieve its aims, Tsumoslide defined modelling procedures for waves generated by tsunamis and landslides. It integrated all known landslides into geographic positioning software, including the hazards' features such as sediment, composition and age of failure, as well as dimensions before and after failure.

Tsumoslide selected one recent submarine landslide case situated off the Syrian coast to study it through high-resolution multibeam bathymetry. The project successfully estimated its sediment composition and enriched its knowledge through this particular case.

Overall all, Tsumoslide found that submarine landslides were everywhere along the continental margins of the Mediterranean basin. It noted that tectonically quiet zones seemed to have the highest density of known events. A wealth of data on abyssal plains, megaturbidities, debris avalanches and headwall heights connected with landslides emerged from the project. The research has illuminated the topic and will hopefully help us to respond early to such hazards one day.