Emplacement and movement of boulders by known storm waves — Field evidence from the Okinawa Islands, Japan

Block and boulder transport in Eastern Samar (Philippines) during Supertyphoon Haiyan

“…Fields of dislocated boulders and blocks are among the most impressive sedimentary evidence of catastrophic coastal flooding (Williams and Hall, 2004;Scicchitano et al, 2007;Goto et al, 2010Goto et al, , 2011Etienne et al, 2011;Nandasena et al, 2011;Richmond et al, 2011;Engel and May, 2012;Terry et al, 2013) and are widely used to infer the most extreme magnitudes of marine flooding events (tsunamis, storm surges) over large timescales (Etienne et al, 2011;Engel and May, 2012;Terry et al, 2013). Criteria to distinguish between tsunamis and storms include exponential landward fining of boulder fields or the generation of ridges due to strong storms, as well as more random scattering of boulders through tsunamis (Goto et al, 2010;Richmond et al, 2011).…”

“…Criteria to distinguish between tsunamis and storms include exponential landward fining of boulder fields or the generation of ridges due to strong storms, as well as more random scattering of boulders through tsunamis (Goto et al, 2010;Richmond et al, 2011). For some boulder deposits, storm transport was ruled out based on their large size, elevation and distance from the coast, and local extreme storm wave conditions (Scicchitano et al, 2007;Engel and May, 2012), while the long wave period of tsunamis has been associated with a higher transport competence (Lorang, 2011).…”

“…For some boulder deposits, storm transport was ruled out based on their large size, elevation and distance from the coast, and local extreme storm wave conditions (Scicchitano et al, 2007;Engel and May, 2012), while the long wave period of tsunamis has been associated with a higher transport competence (Lorang, 2011). However, the topic is still a matter of considerable debate (Goto et al, 2010;Lorang, 2011); until recently, only few studies provided unambiguous evidence for the transport of very large clasts during storms (Goto et al, 2011), e.g. based on direct observations, reliable historical documentation, or satellite data (Table 1).…”

“…2.35 g cm −3 (Süssmilch, 1912;Verhoef, 1993) reveals only 211 t. Furthermore, questions about the reliability of the report on the storm wave transport in 1912 have been raised, citing pre-1912 photographs of the boulder in its present position (Cass, 2002;Scheffers et al, 2008 (Süssmilch, 2012); often cited as an example for largest coastal boulder dimensions observed to have been moved during a storm (Felton and Crook, 2003;Switzer and Burston, 2010;Terry et al, 2013); values of dimensions and ρ b were taken from the original source (Süssmilch, 1912); a correction factor of 0.8 derived from recent photography (Boyson, 2012;Google Earth/Digital Globe, 2015) of the boulder was applied for calculation of V corr . (Goto et al, 2011 (Regnauld et al, 2010).…”

First evidence of accumulation of mega boulders on the Mediterranean rocky coast of Provence (southern France)

“…While there is no ambiguity for observations of recent tsunamis (Goff et al, 2006;Goto et al, 2007), large boulder accumulations may be associated with historic and prehistoric events related to tsunamis (Nott, 2000;Mastronuzzi and Sansò, 2000;Williams and Hall, 2004;Mastronuzzi et al, 2007;Maouche et al, 2009;Paris et al, 2009). Nevertheless, we cannot rule out the possibility of transport by storms (Barabano et al, 2010), and some recent case studies show the role of storm waves in forming boulder accumulations worldwide (Noormets et al, 2002;Nott, 2004;Goto et al, 2009Goto et al, , 2011Suanez et al, 2009;Etienne and Paris, 2010).…”