Tsunamis are large, potentially destructive sea waves, most of which are formed as a result of submarine earthquakes, but which may also result from the eruption or collapse of island or coastal volcanoes and the formation of giant landslides on marine margins. These landslides, in turn, are often triggered by earthquakes. Environmental damage by these tsunamis include coral reef destruction, contamination of wells and other sources of fresh water by salt water, denudation of trees and other types of dry-land vegetation, accelerated beach erosion, and fish and other marine life fatalities due to abnormal wave action. The flooding and powerful wave action of the tsunami may potentially cause damage to man-made containment vessels of petroleum products, chemicals, and garbage landfills, resulting in toxic leakage, which in turn has the potential to pollute both coastal land and ocean environment.

Tsunami waves can be generated from displacements of water resulting from rock falls, icefalls and sudden submarine landslides or slumps. Major earthquakes are suspected to cause many underwater landslides, which may contribute significantly to tsunami generation. For example, many scientists believe that the 1998 tsunami, which killed thousands of people and destroyed coastal villages along the northern coast of Papua-New Guinea, was generated by a large underwater slump of sediments, triggered by an earthquake.

The 1964 Alaska earthquake caused 115 deaths in Alaska alone, with 106 of those due to tsunamis generated by tectonic uplift of the sea floor, and by localized subareal and submarine landslides. The earthquake shaking caused at least 5 local slide-generated tsunamis within minutes after the shaking began. For an eyewitness account of the tsunami caused by the movement and landslides of the 1964 Alaska earthquake, please see: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5007860

Current research in the Canary Islands concludes that there have been at least five massive volcano landslides that occurred in the past, and that these same large events may occur in the future. These giant landslides have the potential of generating large tsunami waves, at close and also very great distances and would have the potential to devastate large areas of coastal land, as far away as the eastern seaboard of North America.

Rock falls and rock avalanches in coastal inlets, such as those that have occurred in the past at Tidal Inlet, Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska have the potential to cause regional tsunamis that pose a hazard to coastal ecosystems and human settlements. On July 9, 1958, a magnitude M 7.9 earthquake on the Fairweather Fault triggered a rock avalanche at the head of Lituya Bay, Alaska. The landslide generated a wave that ran up 524 m on the opposite shore and sent a 30-m high wave through Lituya Bay, sinking two of three fishing boats and killing two persons.

Source of Information:

Geist, E. L., 1998, Source characteristics of the July 17, 1998 Papua New Guinea tsunami: EOS, Transactions of the American Geophysical Union, v. 79 (supplement), p. 571.

Committee on the Alaska Earthquake of Division of Earth Sciences, National Research Council, Seismology and Geodesy, 1972,Plafker, George, USGS, U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper. 543-I. Tectonics of the March 27, 1964, Alaska Earthquake.

Siebert, Lee, 2004, Landslides resulting from structural failure of volcanoes, Catastrophic Landslides:  Effects, Occurrence and mechanisms, Evans, Stephen G., and Jerome V. DeGraff, eds., Reviews in Engineering Geology, Volume XV, Geological Society of America, Boulder, Colorado USA.

Wieczorek, Gerald F., Jakob, Matthias, Motyka, Roman, Zirnheld, Sandra L., and Patricia Craw, 2003, Preliminary assessment of landslide-induced wave hazards:  Tidal Inlet, Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska, U.S. Geological Survey Open-file report 03-100.