Open AccessRecord‐breaking height for 8000‐year‐old tsunami in the North Atlantic
Author(s) -
Bondevik Stein,
Mangerud Jan,
Dawson Sue,
Dawson Alastair,
Lohne Øystein
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
eos, transactions american geophysical union
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.316
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 2324-9250
pISSN - 0096-3941
DOI - 10.1029/2003eo310001
Subject(s) - shetland , geology , holocene , submarine pipeline , oceanography , sea level , elevation (ballistics) , physical geography , archaeology , geography , geometry , mathematics
One of the largest Holocene sub‐marine slides mapped on Earth is the Storegga slide offshore Norway [ Bugge , 1987] (Figure 1). Approximately 3500 km 3 material slid out and generated a huge tsunami dated to about 7300 14 C yr BP [ Bondevik et al ., 1997a], or ca 8150 calendar years BP. The tsunami is known from onshore deposits in Norway [ Bondevik et al ., 1997a], on the Faroe Islands [ Grauert et al ., 2001], and in Scotland [ Dawson et al ., 1993]. Of these, the tsunami deposits in western Norway reaches the highest elevation, indicating a runup of 10–12 m. In this article, we demonstrate that at the Shetland Islands between Norway and Scotland (Figure 1), this tsunami reached onshore heights at least 20 m above the sea level of that time.