Palaeotsunamis in the Pacific Islands

Earth-Science Reviews
By: , and 

Links

Abstract

The recent 29 September 2009 South Pacific and 27 February 2010 Chilean events are a graphic reminder that the tsunami hazard and risk for the Pacific Ocean region should not be forgotten. Pacific Islands Countries (PICs) generally have short (< 150 years) historic records, which means that to understand their tsunami hazard and risk researchers must study evidence for prehistoric events. However, our current state of knowledge of palaeotsunamis in PICs as opposed to their circum-Pacific counterparts is minimal at best. We briefly outline the limited extent of our current knowledge and propose an innovative methodology for future research in the Pacific. Each PIC represents a point source of information in the Pacific Ocean and this would allow their palaeotsunami records to be treated akin to palaeo-DART® (Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis) buoys. Contemporaneous palaeotsunamis from local, regional and distant sources could be identified by using the spatial distribution of island records throughout the Pacific Ocean in conjunction with robust event chronologies. This would be highly innovative and, more importantly, would help provide the building blocks necessary to achieve more meaningful disaster risk reduction for PICs.

Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Palaeotsunamis in the Pacific Islands
Series title Earth-Science Reviews
DOI 10.1016/j.earscirev.2010.10.005
Volume 107
Issue 1-2
Year Published 2011
Language English
Publisher Elsevier
Contributing office(s) Coastal and Marine Geology Program
Description 6 p.
First page 141
Last page 146
Other Geospatial Austral Islands, Cook Islands, Henderson Island, Marquesas archipelago, New Zealand, Samoa, Society Islands, Vanuatu, Wallis & Futuna archipelago,
Google Analytic Metrics Metrics page
Additional publication details