Tsunamis unleashed by rapidly warming Arctic degrade coastal landscapes and communities – case study of Nuugaatsiaq, western Greenland
On the 17th of June 2017, a massive landslide which mobilized ca. 35–58 million m 3 of material entered the Karrat Fjord in western Greenland. It triggered a tsunami wave with a runup height exceeding 90 m close to the landslide, ca. 50 m on the opposite shore of the fjord. The tsunami travelled ca....
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2020
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-2019-376 https://nhess.copernicus.org/preprints/nhess-2019-376/ |
| Summary: | On the 17th of June 2017, a massive landslide which mobilized ca. 35–58 million m 3 of material entered the Karrat Fjord in western Greenland. It triggered a tsunami wave with a runup height exceeding 90 m close to the landslide, ca. 50 m on the opposite shore of the fjord. The tsunami travelled ca. 32 km across the fjord and reached the settlement of Nuugaatsiaq with ca. 1–1.5 m high waves, which were powerful enough to destroy the community infrastructure, impact fragile coastal tundra landscape, and unfortunately, injure several inhabitants and cause 4 deaths. Here we report the results of the field survey of the surroundings of the settlement focused on the perseverance of infrastructure and landscape damages caused by the tsunami, carried out 25 months after the event. |
|---|