Tsunamis caused by submarine slope failures along western Great Bahama Bank.
Submarine slope failures are a likely cause for tsunami generation along the East Coast of the United States. Among potential source areas for such tsunamis are submarine landslides and margin collapses of Bahamian platforms. Numerical models of past events, which have been identified using high-resolution multibeam bathymetric data, reveal possible tsunami impact on Bimini, the Florida Keys, and northern Cuba. Tsunamis caused by slope failures with terminal landslide velocity of 20 ms-1will either dissipate while traveling through the Straits of Florida, or generate a maximum wave of 1.5 m at the Florida coast. Modeling a worst-case scenario with a calculated terminal landslide velocity generates a wave of 4.5 m height. The modeled margin collapse in southwestern Great Bahama Bank potentially has a high impact on northern Cuba, with wave heights between 3.3 to 9.5 m depending on the collapse velocity. The short distance and travel time from the source areas to densely populated coastal areas would make the Florida Keys and Miami vulnerable to such low-probability but high-impact events.
CSL-Center for Carbonate Research, University of Miami, 4600 Rickenbacker Cswy., 33149 Miami, USA.
Jara S D
JS
Schnyder
CSL-Center for Carbonate Research, University of Miami, 4600 Rickenbacker Cswy., 33149 Miami, USA.
Gregor P
GP
Eberli
Center for Applied Coastal Research, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA.
James T
JT
Kirby
Center for Applied Coastal Research, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA.
Fengyan
F
Shi
Center for Applied Coastal Research, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA.
Babak
B
Tehranirad
UMR 5805 EPOC, Université de Bordeaux, 33615 Pessac Cedex, France.
Thierry
T
Mulder
UMR 5805 EPOC, Université de Bordeaux, 33615 Pessac Cedex, France.
Emmanuelle
E
Ducassou
MARUM-Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany.
Dierk
D
Hebbeln
MARUM-Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany.
Paul
P
Wintersteller