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GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 33, L11307, doi:10.1029/2006GL026125, 2006

Size distribution of submarine landslides and its implication to tsunami hazard in Puerto Rico

Uri S. ten Brink

U.S. Geological Survey, Woods Hole Science Center, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA

Eric L. Geist

U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, California, USA

Brian D. Andrews

U.S. Geological Survey, Woods Hole Science Center, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA

Abstract

We have established for the first time a size frequency distribution for carbonate submarine slope failures. Using detailed bathymetry along the northern edge of the carbonate platform north of Puerto Rico, we show that the cumulative distribution of slope failure volumes follows a power-law distribution. The power-law exponent of this distribution is similar to those for rock falls on land, commensurate with their interpreted failure mode. The carbonate volume distribution and its associated volume-area relationship are significantly different from those for clay-rich debris lobes in the Storegga slide, Norway. Coupling this relationship with tsunami simulations allows an estimate of the maximum tsunami runup and the maximum number of potentially damaging tsunamis from landslides to the north shore of Puerto Rico.

Received 23 February 2006; accepted 4 May 2006; published 13 June 2006.

Index Terms: 1815 Hydrology: Erosion; 3070 Marine Geology and Geophysics: Submarine landslides; 4465 Nonlinear Geophysics: Phase transitions; 4564 Oceanography: Physical: Tsunamis and storm surges; 4219 Oceanography: General: Continental shelf and slope processes (3002).

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Citation: ten Brink, U. S., E. L. Geist, and B. D. Andrews (2006), Size distribution of submarine landslides and its implication to tsunami hazard in Puerto Rico, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L11307, doi:10.1029/2006GL026125.

Copyright 2006 by the American Geophysical Union.