The Atlantic Ocean tsunami/earthquake thread

Amtmann

I can't believe there's no active thread in this forum about the recent earthquake off the coast of Japan.

Just wondering, where are the sections of stress along the Atlantic Ocean?

muckish

Most of the discussion is happening in the weather forum. http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056205716

It's interesting as most of the "environmental" topics seem to be placed in the weather forum; earthquakes, aurorae, landslides etc...
Maybe it's time to reclaim from those dastardly climatologists! Or maybe we should just accept that everything that happens is caused by or causes global warming and therefore should be in the weather forum!!!

RosyLily

I'd class earthquakes and tsunamis as "geohazards", ergo...should be in Geography!

El Siglo

RosyLily wrote: »

I'd class earthquakes and tsunamis as "geohazards", ergo...should be in Geography!

To be honest, if we had a Geology forum (don't know why we don't?) then it would probably be there.;)

JupiterKid

I agree with El Sigilo - we need a Geology and Earth Sciences forum to discuss issues like earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunami, floods and other geological/geomorphological phenomena.

The weather forum is really not the place to be discussing earthquakes.

muckish

JupiterKid wrote: »

I agree with El Sigilo - we need a Geology and Earth Sciences forum to discuss issues like earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunami, floods and other geological/geomorphological phenomena.

The weather forum is really not the place to be discussing earthquakes.

So how does one start a new Geology/Earth Sciences Forum? El Siglo enlighten us

Snaggerman

muckish wrote: »

Most of the discussion is happening in the weather forum. http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056205716

Seems AH are having the bigger discussion, strangly for those guys, staying on topic and informative! http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056205710

Amtmann

Back on topic, here is a BBC documentary called MegaTsunami, about La Palma:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhNHeAFdsUw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8gUlLkU-co

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KU30E1vRRu0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72CytIcWGcQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfFUN7SG7NE

star gazer

Geological activity (interactive map) Where there is activity there could be a resultant tsunami although it took unusually large earthquakes in Japan and Indonesia to bring about the displacements and their respective lethal tsunamis. Outside of the more active earthquake/volcanic areas, if a large mass was to simply fall into the sea, say from a part of Norway or even the Irish coast it could cause a significant wave locally and if it was big enough further afield. Likewise if a large displacement happened underwater it could provoke a dangerous wave.
Old Atlantic tsunami events

cocoshovel

Was discussing the quake with some people on IRC and we decided to check out some UK activity charts. According to this http://www.earthquakes.bgs.ac.uk/helicorder/heli.html if you go to the 11th of march there was a spike in activity at about 6-6:30am ish UTC.

The earthquake in Japan happened at 5:46am UTC. Did the quake in Japan have a knock on effect over around here, it just took a short time to travel? This must be related no? Very interesting stuff

Aidan1

It is also entirely possible that we could see some tsunami type activity from undersea landslides - particularly due to reefs on the edge of the continental shelf.

There was some work done in the Coastal and Marine Resources Centre in UCC a few years ago that made the press, suggesting that this was actually likely to happen at some point.

agardiner22

http://www.google.ie/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=11&ved=0CFIQFjAK&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.physorg.com%2Fnews77977989.html&ei=X2AGTqyFCI6yhAe4qv2wDQ&usg=AFQjCNGV6QdpkI8m-iQhrxE4a7PmWLFBtw&sig2=kfmY72kdeEPzvGhpegeUIg

This is the one that freaks me out!!!!

then this report is good.

http://www.google.ie/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CBkQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lapalma-tsunami.com%2F&ei=X2AGTqyFCI6yhAe4qv2wDQ&usg=AFQjCNG5iUagLIlu7FE7JGDk38g9Vbu7hw&sig2=preGU0qK1AQRYAi5_bXBkg

who do u believe????

Cherryfizz

I wouldn't worry about Tsunamis hitting Ireland. They are generally triggered when one plate is subducting under another at convergent plate boundaries. Around 80% occur around the Pacific Ring of Fire. The type of plate boundary in the Atlantic is a divergent one meaning plates are seperating. We are lucky in Ireland that we don't experience the wrath of mother nature!

agardiner22

http://youtu.be/SCn480_TUgY
This is a frightening prospect. The documentary on it on Nat geo is great with an interview with survivors too.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=yN6EgMMrhdI

In some photos the wave reached 524m up the tree line.

maquiladora

The biggest earthquake swarm in decades in the Canary Islands is ongoing at and around El Hierro island. Over the fast few days there have been 495(as of now) earthquakes recorded and many yet to be accouted for.

This is more than the total earthquakes recorded for all the Canary Islands for the past 4 years combined.

No sign on any imminent eruption though but its certainly interesting.

I started a thread in the Weather forum yesterday.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=73460272

bbrhuft

The Mag 9.0 1755 Great Lisbon Earthquake caused a tsunami that was very destructive in Ireland. The tsunami was 2.4 meters (nearly 8 feet) high when it reached Ireland, 75 minutes after the earthquake, that was centered in the Atlantic just west of the Strait of Gibraltar - it washed away the Spanish Arch in Galway city, wrecked boats in Cork Harbor and destroyed a castle in Kinvarra.

"KINVARRA, a market, post, and sea-port town, and a parish, in the barony of Kiltartan, county of Galway," ... "On the 1st of November, 1755, the day of the earthquake at Lisbon, a castle on the western boundary of the parish, which had formerly belonged to the O'Heynes, was destroyed to its foundation and a portion of it swallowed up; and at the same time the chimneys and battlements of Cahirglissane rocked and then fell into a chasm, which was formed by reading the rock to the depth of several fathoms" - A topographical dictionary of Ireland: comprising the several counties ... By Samuel Lewis (1837)

The paper "Coastal boulder deposits in Galway Bay and the Aran Islands, western Ireland" shows that much bigger tsunamis struck Ireland in the past. One giant tsunami that struck Ireland 5000 years ago, tossed 100 ton boulders onto 50 meter high cliff along the west coast.

"Kliffrückgang und Blocktransport an den Westküsten der Britischen Inseln" has pictures of ~100 ton boulders on top of 50 meter high cliffs on the Aran Islands.

1929 Grand Banks earthquake caused a tsunami in Newfoundland that killed 28 people and left 10,000 homeless. It is quite possible that a similar mechanism (earthquake and giant submarine landslide) could generate larger earthquake could happen of the continental sheff of Ireland, generating a much larger tsunami. The 1929 Grand Banks earthquake caused 185 km3 of mud, sand and rock to fall off the continental shelf into the deep ocean.

I think earthquake induced debris avalanches originating from the continental shelf and subduction zone earthquakes, are the more likely cause of Atlantic tsunamis. Not the collapse of volcanoes.

snowstreams

Its funny how very few people from Kinvarra seem to know this story of the tsunami. When I tell them the story they think ive made it up!
People mustn't have passed the stories on through the generations because it was only 250 years ago. Id have expected stories about it to still be circulating around.

agardiner22

where can i find more info about this. This is amazing

dapperdon

JupiterKid wrote: »

The weather forum is really not the place to be discussing earthquakes.

Sort of are. Volcano's are part of earthquakes/tectonic events, they erupt ash (geology) - it goes stratospheric and interacts with weather systems, if you are anywhere downwind of a volcano it would pay you to watch the weather so they can be thought of as being symbiotic.

What are referred to as the mini ice ages of a few hundred years when the Thames froze over for several years in a row and they held winter fairs near London bridge was caused by volcanic ash in the atmosphere.

Everything's a system, you just gotta crack the house rules.

cherryghost

Bumping for interest for anyone not on the Weather forum. El Hierro Eruption is imminent after months of mini quakes, picking up in intensity in recent days, before its reached its harmonic tremors this morning. The local authority is to release a statement in the coming hour. Depending on its intensity in coming days, there may be a tsunami alert issued for the Atlantic (the standard procedure for anyone worried, a tsunami is an extremely unlikely outcome)