The UK faces few, if any other natural hazards that could cause damage on the scale of a repeat Storegga Slide tsunami. However, the Storegga Slide is not the only large submarine landslide in the Norwegian Sea, as there have been at least six mega-slides in the last 20 thousand years. Given the potential impacts of a slide generated tsunami to the UK, there is a need for a better understanding of the frequency, timing and triggers, and emplacement dynamics of these submarine mega-slides.
Key Contact: Ed Pope (PhD Student), Esther Sumner
How are submarine slopes pre-conditioned to fail?
While instantaneous triggers (such as earthquakes) are important in controlling when submarine landslides occur, it is becoming increasingly apparent that sediment preconditioning plays an important role in constraining the location and area of slopes affected by a submarine landslide.
Key Contact: Mark Vardy
Landslides glide plane mechanics using seismic reflection data and numerical modelling
On the 20th of June, 1996, a multi-phase landslide that initiated under water and retrogressed onto land ultimately killed four people, destroyed several houses, and undermined a major highway in Finneidfjord, Norway, an area with a known history of landsliding in the Holocene (Morgan et al. 2009). The aim of this study is to relate the seismic properties of the sediments to their geotechnical parameters for a geo-hazards assessment.
Key Contact: Mark Vardy
Volcanic edifice collapse: processes, timing, and impact on volcano evol
ution
Volcanic flank collapses produce some of the largest landslides known on Earth. They pose a range of hazards, being potentially associated with explosive eruptions, and are also capable of generating large tsunamis, in the case of island or coastal volcanoes. Ongoing work in Montserrat, Mexico and southern Chile aims to improve our understanding of these events.
Key Contact: Mike Cassidy