Landslide and Tsunami 21 November 2000 in Paatuut, West Greenland

Dahl‐Jensen, Trine; Larsen, Lotte Melchior; Pedersen, Stig Andur; Pedersen, Jerrik; Jepsen, H.F; Pedersen, Gunver Krarup; Nielsen, Tove; Pedersen, Asger Ken; Platen-Hallermund, Frants von; Weng, Willy

doi:10.1023/b:nhaz.0000020264.70048.95

Cited by 59 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…1). According to Dahl−Jensen et al (2004) the direct cause was melting and refreezing of water in surface cracks due to air temperature fluctuations during the days prior to the event. After several days with cold temperatures and some snowfall the temperature rose to 5 to 6°C for two days, causing some snow melt, followed by temperatures just below freezing on the 20th and 21st of November 2000.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Tsunami generated dam− age was described by local authorities from sites as much as 180 km from Paatuut. Anomalous weather conditions, notably warming followed by cooling that caused water freezing in cracks during the days prior to the slide are thought to have caused failure of the steep mountain side (Dahl−Jensen et al 2004). Although rock avalanches and landslides are common in the area, the size of the tsunami was con− sidered to be the largest during at least the last 500 years (Dahl−Jensen et al 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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New insights into the 21 November 2000 tsunami in West Greenland from analyses of the tree−ring structure of Salix glauca

Buchwał¹,

Szczuciński²,

Long³

2015

Polish Polar Research

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Abstract:We test the application of dendrochronological methods for dating and assessing the environmental impacts of tsunamis in polar regions, using an example of the 21 Novem− ber 2000 landslide−generated tsunami in Vaigat Strait (Sullorsuaq Strait), West Greenland. The studied tsunami inundated a c. 130 m−wide coastal plain with seawater, caused erosion of beaches and top soil and covered the area with an up to 35 cm−thick layer of tsunami de− posits composed of sand and gravel. Samples of living shrub, Salix glauca (greyleaf wil− low) were collected in 2012 from tsunami−flooded and non−flooded sites. The tree−ring analyses reveal unambiguously that the tsunami−impacted area was immediately colonized during the following summer by rapidly growing shrubs, whilst one of our control site spec− imens records evidence for damage that dates to the time of the tsunami. This demonstrates the potential for dendrochronological methods to act as a precise tool for the dating of Arc− tic paleotsunamis, as well as rapid post−tsunami ecosystem recovery. The reference site shrubs were likely damaged by solifluction in the autumn 2000 AD that was triggered by high seasonal rainfall, which was itself a probable contributory factor to the tsunami−gener− ating landslide.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

New insights into the 21 November 2000 tsunami in West Greenland from analyses of the tree−ring structure of Salix glauca

Buchwał¹,

Szczuciński²,

Long³

2015

Polish Polar Research

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“…Photographs taken after the event indicate a dark stripe along the coast where low-lying snow, below about 50 m asl, was washed away by the tsunami. Locally the resulting tsunami had a height of 50 m. Several icebergs were washed inland and stranded 300-700 m from the coast, with debris (sediment and icebergs) scattered across an alluvial fan up to 800 m. The tsunami was the largest reported in Vaigat during at least the last 500 years and field observations show the impact of the event was limited to the U-shaped Vaigat fjord [15]. Buchwal et al [12] suggest that climatic factors likely had a role in influencing the event, with the highest precipitation and thickest permafrost active layer on record observed in the months leading up to the event.…”

Section: Tsunami Hazard In Greenlandmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1) noted abnormal waves in the harbour. A subsequent survey by Pedersen et al [49] and Dahl-Jensen et al [15] revealed that the waves were caused by a landslide that entered the sea c. 40 km northwest at Paattut. The escarpment that failed at the head of the slide reached c. 1400 m above sea level (asl), delivering an estimated 30 million m 3 of sediment into the sea.…”

Section: Tsunami Hazard In Greenlandmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sedimentary evidence for a mid-Holocene iceberg-generated tsunami in a coastal lake, west Greenland

Long

Szczuciński

Lawrence

2015

Arktos

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4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.Additional information: Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-pro t purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. Abstract We report sedimentological evidence for a tsunami from a coastal lake at Innaarsuit, Disko Bugt (west Greenland), which was most likely generated by a rolling iceberg. The tsunami invaded the lake c. 6000 years ago, during a period of time when relative sea level (RSL) was falling quickly because of isostatic rebound. We use the background rate of RSL fall, together with an age model for the sediment sequence, to infer a minimum wave runup during the event of c. 3.3 m. The stratigraphic signature of the event bears similarities to that described from studies of the early-Holocene Storegga slide tsunami in Norwegian coastal basins. Conditions conducive to iceberg tsunami include a supply of icebergs, deep water close to the shore, a depositional setting protected from storms or landslide tsunami, and a coastal configuration that has the potential to amplify the height of tsunami waves as water depths shallow and the waves approach and impact the coast. Future warming of polar regions will lead to increased calving and iceberg production, at a time when human use of polar coasts will also grow. We predict, therefore, that iceberg-generated tsunami will become a growing hazard in polar coastal waters, especially in areas adjacent to large, fast-flowing, marine-terminating ice streams that are close to human populations or infrastructure.

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Plate Tectonics and Polar Sea Ice

2022

Engineering Physics of High‐Temperature Materials

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Landslide and Tsunami 21 November 2000 in Paatuut, West Greenland

Cited by 59 publications

References 9 publications

New insights into the 21 November 2000 tsunami in West Greenland from analyses of the tree−ring structure of Salix glauca

New insights into the 21 November 2000 tsunami in West Greenland from analyses of the tree−ring structure of Salix glauca

Sedimentary evidence for a mid-Holocene iceberg-generated tsunami in a coastal lake, west Greenland

Plate Tectonics and Polar Sea Ice

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