Evidence of Middle Holocene landslide-generated tsunamis recorded in lake sediments from Saqqaq, West Greenland
The Vaigat strait (Sullorsuaq) in West Greenland is well known for its susceptibility to landslides and historical landslide-generated tsunamis. Recent mapping of the seabed in the Vaigat strait has revealed several prehistoric giga-scale (volumes of 109ĝ€¯m3) tsunamigenic landslides. However, the t...
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2024
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ftcopenhagenunip:oai:pure.atira.dk:publications/7efaad09-3dc4-4a90-8fe6-7195a8cccce5 2024-04-14T08:12:28+00:00 Evidence of Middle Holocene landslide-generated tsunamis recorded in lake sediments from Saqqaq, West Greenland Korsgaard, Niels J. Svennevig, Kristian Søndergaard, Anne S. Luetzenburg, Gregor Oksman, Mimmi Larsen, Nicolaj K. 2024-03-05 https://curis.ku.dk/portal/da/publications/evidence-of-middle-holocene-landslidegenerated-tsunamis-recorded-in-lake-sediments-from-saqqaq-west-greenland(7efaad09-3dc4-4a90-8fe6-7195a8cccce5).html https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-24-757-2024 http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85186991850&partnerID=8YFLogxK eng eng info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Korsgaard , N J , Svennevig , K , Søndergaard , A S , Luetzenburg , G , Oksman , M & Larsen , N K 2024 , ' Evidence of Middle Holocene landslide-generated tsunamis recorded in lake sediments from Saqqaq, West Greenland ' , Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences , vol. 24 , no. 3 , pp. 757-772 . https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-24-757-2024 article 2024 ftcopenhagenunip https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-24-757-2024 2024-03-21T17:28:24Z The Vaigat strait (Sullorsuaq) in West Greenland is well known for its susceptibility to landslides and historical landslide-generated tsunamis. Recent mapping of the seabed in the Vaigat strait has revealed several prehistoric giga-scale (volumes of 109ĝ€¯m3) tsunamigenic landslides. However, the timing of these giga-scale tsunamis is largely unconstrained, but they are assumed to have occurred after the last deglaciation. Here, we report on lake sediment core records from four coastal lakes located between 19 and 91ĝ€¯m above sea level (a.s.l.) on the Saqqaq foreland at the eastern end of the Vaigat strait. We use a multiproxy approach including X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and magnetic susceptibility core scanning along with a screening for marine diatoms to identify at least two tsunami deposits in two of the four sediment cores. Radiocarbon dating of aquatic macrofossils and bulk samples suggest that the tsunami events occurred at ca. 7.6 and 7.3ĝ€¯kaĝ€¯calĝ€¯BP. Using a previously published relative sea level curve from Vaskebugt, Arveprinsen Ejland (Alluttoq), located 40ĝ€¯km southeast of Saqqaq, we infer wave runup heights of ca. 41-66 and 45-70ĝ€¯m, respectively, for the two tsunami events. These runup heights from prehistoric tsunamis are 1 to 2 orders of magnitude higher than the historic landslide-Tsunami runup heights at Saqqaq which only reached an elevation of ca. 3ĝ€¯m in November 2000. While we found deposits from two tsunami events in the lake sediments, landforms from at least nine giga-scale landslides are present on the seafloor of Vaigat. We infer that these deposits probably represent the two most recent tsunamis identified in the Vaigat strait and that the older tsunamis must have happened between the last deglaciation and the oldest sediment in the lakes, i.e., between ca. 10.0 and 8.5ĝ€¯kaĝ€¯calĝ€¯BP. Article in Journal/Newspaper Greenland Saqqaq University of Copenhagen: Research Arveprinsen Ejland ENVELOPE(-51.167,-51.167,69.717,69.717) Greenland Vaigat ENVELOPE(-52.947,-52.947,70.200,70.200) Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences 24 3 757 772 |
institution |
Open Polar |
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University of Copenhagen: Research |
op_collection_id |
ftcopenhagenunip |
language |
English |
description |
The Vaigat strait (Sullorsuaq) in West Greenland is well known for its susceptibility to landslides and historical landslide-generated tsunamis. Recent mapping of the seabed in the Vaigat strait has revealed several prehistoric giga-scale (volumes of 109ĝ€¯m3) tsunamigenic landslides. However, the timing of these giga-scale tsunamis is largely unconstrained, but they are assumed to have occurred after the last deglaciation. Here, we report on lake sediment core records from four coastal lakes located between 19 and 91ĝ€¯m above sea level (a.s.l.) on the Saqqaq foreland at the eastern end of the Vaigat strait. We use a multiproxy approach including X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and magnetic susceptibility core scanning along with a screening for marine diatoms to identify at least two tsunami deposits in two of the four sediment cores. Radiocarbon dating of aquatic macrofossils and bulk samples suggest that the tsunami events occurred at ca. 7.6 and 7.3ĝ€¯kaĝ€¯calĝ€¯BP. Using a previously published relative sea level curve from Vaskebugt, Arveprinsen Ejland (Alluttoq), located 40ĝ€¯km southeast of Saqqaq, we infer wave runup heights of ca. 41-66 and 45-70ĝ€¯m, respectively, for the two tsunami events. These runup heights from prehistoric tsunamis are 1 to 2 orders of magnitude higher than the historic landslide-Tsunami runup heights at Saqqaq which only reached an elevation of ca. 3ĝ€¯m in November 2000. While we found deposits from two tsunami events in the lake sediments, landforms from at least nine giga-scale landslides are present on the seafloor of Vaigat. We infer that these deposits probably represent the two most recent tsunamis identified in the Vaigat strait and that the older tsunamis must have happened between the last deglaciation and the oldest sediment in the lakes, i.e., between ca. 10.0 and 8.5ĝ€¯kaĝ€¯calĝ€¯BP. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Korsgaard, Niels J. Svennevig, Kristian Søndergaard, Anne S. Luetzenburg, Gregor Oksman, Mimmi Larsen, Nicolaj K. |
spellingShingle |
Korsgaard, Niels J. Svennevig, Kristian Søndergaard, Anne S. Luetzenburg, Gregor Oksman, Mimmi Larsen, Nicolaj K. Evidence of Middle Holocene landslide-generated tsunamis recorded in lake sediments from Saqqaq, West Greenland |
author_facet |
Korsgaard, Niels J. Svennevig, Kristian Søndergaard, Anne S. Luetzenburg, Gregor Oksman, Mimmi Larsen, Nicolaj K. |
author_sort |
Korsgaard, Niels J. |
title |
Evidence of Middle Holocene landslide-generated tsunamis recorded in lake sediments from Saqqaq, West Greenland |
title_short |
Evidence of Middle Holocene landslide-generated tsunamis recorded in lake sediments from Saqqaq, West Greenland |
title_full |
Evidence of Middle Holocene landslide-generated tsunamis recorded in lake sediments from Saqqaq, West Greenland |
title_fullStr |
Evidence of Middle Holocene landslide-generated tsunamis recorded in lake sediments from Saqqaq, West Greenland |
title_full_unstemmed |
Evidence of Middle Holocene landslide-generated tsunamis recorded in lake sediments from Saqqaq, West Greenland |
title_sort |
evidence of middle holocene landslide-generated tsunamis recorded in lake sediments from saqqaq, west greenland |
publishDate |
2024 |
url |
https://curis.ku.dk/portal/da/publications/evidence-of-middle-holocene-landslidegenerated-tsunamis-recorded-in-lake-sediments-from-saqqaq-west-greenland(7efaad09-3dc4-4a90-8fe6-7195a8cccce5).html https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-24-757-2024 http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85186991850&partnerID=8YFLogxK |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-51.167,-51.167,69.717,69.717) ENVELOPE(-52.947,-52.947,70.200,70.200) |
geographic |
Arveprinsen Ejland Greenland Vaigat |
geographic_facet |
Arveprinsen Ejland Greenland Vaigat |
genre |
Greenland Saqqaq |
genre_facet |
Greenland Saqqaq |
op_source |
Korsgaard , N J , Svennevig , K , Søndergaard , A S , Luetzenburg , G , Oksman , M & Larsen , N K 2024 , ' Evidence of Middle Holocene landslide-generated tsunamis recorded in lake sediments from Saqqaq, West Greenland ' , Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences , vol. 24 , no. 3 , pp. 757-772 . https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-24-757-2024 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-24-757-2024 |
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Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences |
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24 |
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3 |
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757 |
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